Ivo Secures $55M for AI Contract Review Platform

Ivo, a legal AI startup, has raised $55 million in Series B funding led by Blackbird to expand its contract intelligence platform for in-house legal teams.

The San Francisco-based company announced the funding round on Tuesday, which valued Ivo at approximately $355 million. New investors Costanoa Ventures, Uncork Capital, Fika Ventures, GD1, and Icehouse Ventures participated alongside lead investor Blackbird.

The funding comes as demand surges for AI tools that automate contract review work for corporate legal departments. Ivo's revenue jumped sixfold since its February 2024 Series A round. The company competes in a growing market where legal AI startup Harvey reached an $8 billion valuation last year after raising $160 million.

Product Capabilities

Ivo's platform operates inside Microsoft Word, where it surfaces contract risks, suggests redlines, and speeds up negotiations. The company's contract repository converts executed agreements into searchable data. Legal teams use the system to query documents, map relationships across agreements, and track deviations from standard terms.

CEO and co-founder Min-Kyu Jung told Reuters that Ivo helps businesses extract insights from legacy contracts. The platform shows how negotiating positions and risk profiles have evolved over time.

Customer Base

Ivo serves Fortune 500 enterprises and fast-growing technology companies including Uber, Shopify, IBM, Reddit, and Canva. These organizations review thousands of contracts annually. The company reports an 85% win rate when competing head-to-head with rivals in customer trials.

Jung founded Ivo after working as a corporate lawyer in New Zealand. He taught himself to code after spending days reviewing agreements and searching through document management systems for precedents.

Technical Approach

Ivo addresses AI accuracy concerns by breaking contract reviews into over 400 separate AI tasks rather than processing them as single operations. Jung said this detailed method beats standard chatbots and reduces errors.

"Increasingly, the trend has been for more complex agreements," Jung said. He noted demand has shifted from high-volume simple contracts to more complicated work requiring sophisticated analysis.

The legal industry has faced high-profile AI errors in recent years. In 2024, a Virginia judge ordered lawyers to explain why they should not be sanctioned for submitting a filing with what appeared to be fictitious cases generated by AI. These incidents highlight risks associated with AI systems that produce false information.

Investment Plans

Ivo will use the new capital to deepen its platform, increase enterprise capabilities, and expand internationally. The company plans to open offices in London and New York. It will invest in professional services to support large customers.

The startup aims to make onboarding faster for legal teams ranging from five to 1,000 people. Development priorities include connecting its Intelligence and Review products to surface recommendations based on precedent agreements. Ivo also plans to give its AI agents access to more organization-specific context.

The company intends to triple its current headcount of 60 employees by the end of 2026. New hires will include salespeople to meet growing demand for the platform.

Funding Details

The Series B round brings Ivo's total raised capital to over $70 million since its founding. Blackbird led both the Series A and Series B rounds, demonstrating continued investor confidence in the company's approach.

Ivo reported annual recurring revenue growth of 6x over the past year. The company attributes this growth to its focus on helping in-house legal teams work faster without compromising quality.

About Ivo

Ivo is an AI contract intelligence platform designed specifically for in-house legal teams. Founded by Min-Kyu Jung, the company builds tools that integrate with existing legal workflows to automate contract review and unlock insights from agreement repositories. Ivo is headquartered in San Francisco.