Wordsmith AI, the Edinburgh and New York-based AI-powered in-house legal assistant platform — has announced a $70 million Series B funding from investment firms Highland Europe and Index Ventures among others.
The round comes alongside an expansion of Wordsmith’s product and new enterprise customer wins, including Sage and Starling.
It follows a year of rapid growth for Wordsmith which is now used by more than 500 companies, including BT, Financial Times, Safelite, Trip.com, and Canva.
“Wordsmith’s momentum reflects the pace at which enterprise legal teams are rethinking how work gets done,” said the firm.
“Wordsmith will use the funding to accelerate development of its AI platform, scale towards 300 people globally by the end of the year, double down on the US market, and support growing demand from corporate legal departments looking to bring more work in-house, reduce spend on outside counsel, and measure legal’s impact across the business.
“The legal AI market is splitting. Some products are built for law firms, where the business model is producing more legal work and billing for it.
“Others are assistants or copilots built to help individual lawyers draft, review, and answer faster. Wordsmith is built for a different market: in-house legal teams, whose job is to help the business move faster, manage risk, keep more work internal, and decide what truly needs outside counsel.”
Wordsmith CEO and co-founder Ross McNairn said: “Legal does not need another filing cabinet, and it does not need another copilot that simply helps one lawyer work faster.
“Wordsmith is the front door that does the work. Requests come in, AI agents process the routine, lawyers approve what needs judgment, and every step is recorded as it happens. We are building the system Legal runs on: one place where work comes in, gets owned, gets completed and measured.”
Jean Tardy-Joubert, Partner at Highland Europe, said: “What is most exciting about Wordsmith is that this is a tool built for companies, rightfully involving all employees in legal affairs, in coordination with the in-house legal team. By taking a vertical approach, Ross and the Wordsmith team have established themselves at the forefront of the sector, with demonstrable market traction, impressive growth and more than 500 satisfied customers.”
Wordsmith was founded by CEO Ross McNairn, CTO Volodymyr Giginiak, and COO Robbie Falkenthal. McNairn is a former lawyer turned technology executive who helped scale Perk from $1 million to $200 million in ARR and previously held senior roles at Skyscanner before its $1.7 billion exit.
Giginiak spent more than a decade at Facebook and Instagram and over six years at Microsoft. Falkenthal spent more than six years at KPMG Dublin and later held senior leadership roles at Perk.