Latest news with #JackNewton
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Clio to acquire legal intelligence provider vLex in $1bn deal
Canadian legal software company Clio has agreed to acquire vLex, a Spain-based legal intelligence provider, for $1bn, payable in cash and stock. Established in 2000, vLex, part of Oakley Capital's portfolio, offers a global legal research platform powered by AI. It serves clients in more than 110 countries with tools like Vincent, used by numerous legal teams, including Am Law 100 firms, courts, and law societies. Vincent operates on vLex's database of more than one billion legal documents, supporting cross-jurisdictional research, audio and video analysis, legal theory testing, and tailored workflows. Clio CEO and founder Jack Newton said: 'For 17 years, we've built the foundational platform that enables law firms to operate at their highest potential. With vLex, we're building on that foundation with technology that understands the substance of the law. 'By bringing together the business and practice of law in a unified platform, we're revolutionising every aspect of legal work.' The acquisition, Clio's largest to date, integrates vLex's research platform with Clio's system, used by over 200,000 legal professionals, to combine legal management and research functions. The transaction, which is expected to close later in 2025, is subject to standard conditions and regulatory approvals. vLexCEO and co-founder Lluis Faus said: 'Together with Clio, we have a bold vision for the future that empowers legal professionals to go beyond traditional research and operational silos, harnessing deeper intelligence and broader impact.' Goldman Sachs served as Clio's exclusive financial advisor, with legal counsel provided by Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and Gowling. "Clio to acquire legal intelligence provider vLex in $1bn deal " was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Legal software company Clio drops $1B on law data giant vLex
On Monday, Clio, a 17-year-old Canadian law firm management software company, announced that it has agreed to acquire vLex, a 26-year-old legal data intelligence platform, in a $1 billion cash-and-stock deal. The announcement comes about a year after Clio's massive $900 million funding round, which nearly doubled the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company's valuation from $1.6 billion in 2021 to $3 billion. vLex, which was largely bootstrapped until it was purchased by private equity firm Oakley Capital in 2022, has been a highly sought-after asset, according to Jack Newton, CEO and founder of Clio. Harvey, the AI-native legal tech startup, attempted to purchase vLex a year ago, but the acquisition didn't come together, as reported by The Information last July. vLex is a valuable property because its database of legal documents can greatly improve AI models for lawyers. 'Data is one of the only long-term defensible competitive moats a company can have in the space,' Newton told TechCrunch. vLex competes with the Thomson Reuters-owned legal database and LexisNexis. The acquisition comes shortly after Harvey announced a partnership with LexisNexis, aiming to enrich Harvey's AI with LexisNexis data. With the acquisition of vLex, Clio, which provides law firms with time-tracking, invoicing, and electronic payment tools, is now effectively stepping into the practice of law itself. Over the last few years, vLex has built Vincent, an AI model built on top of the company's legal content database. 'AI is going to drive a convergence of what have historically been distinct categories of software: the business of law and the practice of law,' Newton said. He added that Clio's clients in the small and medium law firm segment will now have access to Vincent's AI capabilities. In addition to announcing plans to acquire vLex, Clio said it has reached $300 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
TechCrunch
01-07-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Legal software company Clio drops $1B on law data giant vLex
On Monday, Clio, a 17-year-old Canadian law firm management software company, announced that it has agreed to acquire vLex, a 26-year-old legal data intelligence platform, in a $1 billion cash-and-stock deal. The announcement comes about a year after Clio's massive $900 million funding round, which nearly doubled the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company's valuation from $1.6 billion in 2021 to $3 billion. vLex, which was largely bootstrapped until it was purchased by private equity firm Oakley Capital in 2022, has been a highly sought-after asset, according to Jack Newton, CEO and founder of Clio. Harvey, the AI-native legal tech startup, attempted to purchase vLex a year ago, but the acquisition didn't come together, as reported by The Information last July. vLex is a valuable property because its database of legal documents can greatly improve AI models for lawyers. 'Data is one of the only long-term defensible competitive moats a company can have in the space,' Newton told TechCrunch. vLex competes with the Thomson Reuters-owned legal database and LexisNexis. The acquisition comes shortly after Harvey announced a partnership with LexisNexis, aiming to enrich Harvey's AI with LexisNexis data. Techcrunch event Save $450 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW With the acquisition of vLex, Clio, which provides law firms with time-tracking, invoicing, and electronic payment tools, is now effectively stepping into the practice of law itself. Over the last few years, vLex has built Vincent, an AI model built on top of the company's legal content database. 'AI is going to drive a convergence of what have historically been distinct categories of software: the business of law and the practice of law,' Newton said. He added that Clio's clients in the small and medium law firm segment will now have access to Vincent's AI capabilities. In addition to announcing plans to acquire vLex, Clio said it has reached $300 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR).
Globe and Mail
30-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Clio buys AI legal tech vendor vLex for $1-billion in second major deal of 2025
Legal software company Clio, one of Canada's largest private software companies, has made its second transformative acquisition of the year, paying US$1-billion for vLex LLC, the maker of an artificial intelligence tool that keeps lawyers from accidentally citing fake court rulings. The deal expands Burnaby, B.C.-based Clio (officially named Themis Solutions), which sells practice management software to lawyers, into a new business and for the second time this year at least doubles its potential addressable market. It also pits Clio against heavyweight rivals: Canadian legal software giant Thomson Reuters Corp. and Relx PLC's LexisNexis unit. (Thomson Reuters' controlling shareholder, the Thomson family, own The Globe and Mail) The acquisition, Clio's sixth, brings 'the business of law and the practice of law capability under one roof,' chief executive Jack Newton said in an interview. 'We are reforming the company and reshaping it with AI at its heart. It puts us on an entirely new trajectory.' Clio said Monday it had signed a definitive agreement to buy Barcelona-based vLex from European private equity firm Oakley Capital for stock and cash. Clio prevailed in a competitive process, winning out over at least one other party, San Francisco AI startup Harvey. The deal is expected to close this year. Mr. Newton declined to comment on how Clio, with US$300-million in annual recurring revenue, would finance the deal, nor did he provide any financial information about vLex. Clio does have debt facilities and deep-pocketed backers including New Enterprise Associates, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, TCV, JMI Equity and T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. Until now, Clio has sold what it calls an operating system for law firms. Its cloud-based platform is used by lawyers to manage their practices, including scheduling, bookkeeping, accounting, billing, client onboarding, document and case file management and advertising. The profitable company is one of more than 70 private Canadian tech enterprises that have surpassed US$100-million in annual revenue, and a likely candidate to go public when markets warm up. Last year Clio did a US$900-million secondary financing that saw NEA buy out employees and early investors in a deal larger than most Canadian initial public offerings. During its first 17 years Clio focused on small to medium-sized law practices. Then in March it bought Manchester, U.K.-based Sliced Bread Ltd., whose Sharedo product targets larger, global law firms. The deal doubled Clio's potential market size. More than 200,000 lawyers now use Clio's practice management products. vLex is a different business. The 350-person company, founded in 2000 by brothers Lluís and Angel Faus, maintains a global law library of one-billion-plus legal documents. vLex focused outside the U.S. until 2023, a year after its sale to Oakley, when it merged with Washington, D.C.-based Fastcase, giving it access to more than one million lawyers in the world's largest economy. At the same time, vLex was developing a generative AI-based virtual assistant known as Vincent for legal professionals to automatically read cases, create research memos, build arguments, flag potential legal issues, cite authorities and draft documents. Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis have created similar tools while also building in features to prevent a common problem with generative AI: its propensity to make up answers. Those so-called hallucinations have led to embarrassment for lawyers when they filed documents in court citing fictional cases conjured up by AI. Nonetheless, lawyers are rapidly adopting AI tools and buying vLex 'establishes for Clio one of the most important strategic advantages in the age of AI, which is a durable data moat,' given the acquired company's vast law library, Mr. Newton said. He said Vincent, which is used by thousands of lawyers, 'enables for fully hallucination-free AI where citations are grounded in case law and lawyers can rest easy that' what it produces is trustworthy. Vincent is still a nascent business with revenues that are 'not that relevant,' Mr. Newton said. He described Clio's investment as 'a venture bet. It's this extremely early but extremely promising and rapidly growing AI capability and business they're building that we acquired here.' Clio was advised by Goldman Sachs and law firms Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Gowling WLG. vLex used J.P. Morgan as its financial advisor.
Cision Canada
30-06-2025
- Business
- Cision Canada
Clio Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire vLex for US$1 Billion, Defining a New Era for AI-Powered Legal Technology
The transformative union of legal research, practice management, and cutting-edge AI marks a category shift in legal technology that converges the business and practice of law This combination further expands Clio's global footprint and unlocks unprecedented agentic AI capabilities, empowering legal professionals to intelligently execute every aspect of legal work The landmark deal marks a turning point in the legal technology sector, uniting the industry's foremost legal research and operational platforms into a single, intelligent system The transaction is valued at US$1 billion, to be paid in a combination of cash and stock VANCOUVER, BC, June 30, 2025 /CNW/ - Clio, the world's leading provider of legal technology, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire vLex, a pioneer in legal intelligence that combines cutting-edge AI with the world's most comprehensive global legal research platform. The transaction is valued at US$1 billion and will be paid in a combination of cash and stock. This transaction is both a major milestone in Clio's platform evolution and a turning point for the future of legal work. It combines Clio's legal operating system—trusted by more than 200,000 legal professionals—with vLex's cutting-edge legal intelligence platform, which includes Vincent, its groundbreaking AI, built on the industry's most comprehensive global legal database. Together, these platforms establish a new category of intelligent legal technology at the intersection of the business and practice of law, empowering legal professionals to seamlessly manage, research, and execute legal work within a unified system. "This is a watershed moment for Clio and the broader legal profession," said Jack Newton, CEO and Founder of Clio. "For 17 years, we've built the foundational platform that enables law firms to operate at their highest potential. With vLex, we're building on that foundation with technology that understands the substance of the law. By bringing together the business and practice of law in a unified platform, we're revolutionizing every aspect of legal work. This sets the stage for a future powered by agentic AI, and marks the establishment of a new industry category—one that will empower legal professionals to serve clients with unprecedented insight and precision." vLex's industry-leading research and drafting AI, Vincent, is trusted by thousands of legal teams, including Am Law 100 firms, courts, and law societies around the world. Renowned for its accuracy and advanced cross-jurisdictional reasoning, Vincent has transformed legal AI, delivering faster, deeper insights across global matters. It's powered by vLex's proprietary global database of more than a billion editorially enriched legal documents—the most comprehensive global legal library in the world. With cutting-edge capabilities like multimodal audio and video analysis, legal theory testing, and customizable firm workflows, Vincent spans high-value use cases across legal work. "This signals the onset of a transformative era in the legal industry, unlike anything we've seen before," said Lluís Faus, CEO and Co-Founder of vLex. "Together with Clio, we have a bold vision for the future that empowers legal professionals to go beyond traditional research and operational silos, harnessing deeper intelligence and broader impact. With the most comprehensive global legal library and firm insights, Clio and vLex are uniquely positioned to reshape the mechanics of legal work and redefine the trajectory of the profession." This is the most significant acquisition in Clio's history, both in scale and strategic impact. Beyond strengthening the platform, it accelerates the company's ability to deliver on its mission of transforming the legal experience for all. Building on Clio's steady momentum upmarket, the acquisition further expands its global footprint and underscores the vast, untapped opportunity for innovation across the broader legal industry. Clio is now positioned not only to help legal professionals manage their firms, but to power the full delivery of legal services—extending its reach across the trillion-dollar global legal services market. "This acquisition expands the boundaries of what legal technology can achieve," continued Newton. "It unlocks new levels of intelligence and scale that directly advance our mission. We're shaping a future where legal services are more insightful, connected, and accessible than ever before." The transaction is expected to close later this year, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Goldman Sachs acted as Clio's exclusive financial advisor. Law firms Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Gowling WLG served as legal counsel to Clio. J.P. Morgan acted as vLex's exclusive financial advisor. Law firms A&O Shearman and Uría Menéndez served as legal advisors to vLex. About Clio Since its inception in 2008, Clio has revolutionized the landscape of cloud-based and AI legal technology, emerging as the leader of innovation and integration. By offering advanced yet intuitive legal software, Clio has redefined efficiency and client service, setting the standard for legal professionals across the globe. With an unwavering commitment to groundbreaking innovation and customer success, Clio stands as the preeminent authority in legaltech, continuously pushing the boundaries of the sector's evolution. Explore the future of legal technology with Clio at About vLex vLex, an Oakley Capital portfolio company, has pioneered legal intelligence and AI-powered research since its founding in Barcelona in 2000. By combining the world's most extensive legal database with cutting-edge AI, vLex has redefined how legal professionals access, analyze, and apply knowledge, setting new standards for precision and efficiency across the legal industry. With an unwavering commitment to innovation, and serving customers in over 110 countries, vLex is continuously advancing the boundaries of what's possible for lawyers. Discover the future of legal research and practice at
