2. Robin AI: the ultimate legal sidekick

Founders: Richard Robinson and Dr. James Clough
Year founded: 2019
Website: robin.ai

Legal fees are a black hole for business finance. In the blink of an eye, a simple contract negotiation can suck up thousands in savings. But what is to blame for exorbitant hourly rates? In truth, much of the labour force is being expended on one thing: paperwork.

That was what Richard Robinson experienced while working as a lawyer for a large firm in the City of London. He recalls spending hours locked at the desk with colleagues, wasting brain power on “arduous admin tasks”; tasks that he felt should have been automated.

20 years ago, this may have been a ‘shrug it off and move on’ moment. But technology moves rapidly. In 2019, while reconnecting with university friend and tech whizz Dr. James Clough, Robinson realised the solution to his problem lay in the rapidly evolving field of AI.

The two came together to create Robin AI, a revolutionary contract software with a clear mission: “Harness the power of AI to transform legal services, reducing inefficiency and making law more accessible to businesses and individuals,” explains Robinson.

We earned the trust of the legal community and proved that AI could enhance their work.

The duo set about building their case, beginning with contract reviews. Legal professionals can spend weeks reading hundred-page documents to analyse the fine print.

Rather than rely on existing models, Clough built a proprietary large language model (LLM). Trained on more than two million non-public legal contracts, it can swiftly surmise everything from liability risks to payment terms, passing the bar for commercial rollout.

Now to convince the jury. To win over its potential clients, Robin AI gathered the evidence and mounted its defence. In a demo with lawyers at top London investment companies, Robin’s AI-powered assistant cut the time it took to review contracts by 85%.

“By delivering these results consistently, we earned the trust of the legal community and proved that AI could enhance their work,” Robinson adds.

Still, Robin’s audience is not just law firms, but in-house teams. By turning billable time into a software licence, it aims to challenge the traditional legal model and democratise access to ultimately bring down the cost of legal services.

There is naturally a lot of industry angst surrounding these tools. Concerns over so-called ‘robot lawyers’ taking jobs from solicitors have led many to shy away from adoption, reinforcing the sector’s stuck-in-its-ways image.

Such sceptics risk becoming the first casualties of the revolution. As more legal AI startups crop up, firms can either embrace these solutions to empower human lawyers, or fall behind.

Certainly, the market is crowded. But we think the sheer intelligence of Robin’s offering means it will succeed where rivals have not. Alongside contract reviewing, its LLM can also make it simpler for customers to track and find information across their contract repositories.

The proof is in the pudding. In 2024, Robin AI raised $26m in new funding, following on from an impressive Series A of $10.5m the year before. Robinson and Clough have put the new money towards a trip to Asia, setting up a new office in Singapore last July.

As the services industry faces increasing pressure to deliver more with less, Robin AI offers us a glimpse into what the future could look like for legal professionals. Our ruling? Robin AI is a top startup for 2025, and a deserved silver medallist in this year’s Startups 100 Index.