The capabilities of Generative AI in interpreting complex texts have made it an invaluable asset for startups seeking to tackle the intricacies of legal documentation. This has led to a significant surge in the development of legal tech, fueled by AI, over the past year.

Recently, lawtech startup Eudia secured $105 million in funding. In the previous year, notable investments include London-based Genie AI raising €16 million, US-based Harvey receiving $300 million in a round led by Sequoia, and Lawhive gathering $40 million to target ‘main street’ US lawyers. The latest addition to this list is Luminance, which markets itself as “legal-grade” AI.

Luminance boasts the capability of accurately analyzing all aspects of complex legal issues and contracts. The company has raised $75 million in a Series C funding round, led by Point72 Private Investments, making it one of the largest funding rounds for a pure-play legal AI company in the UK and European market. This brings Luminance’s total funding over the last 12 months to over $115 million and $165 million overall.

The funding round also saw participation from Forestay Capital, RPS Ventures, and Schroders Capital, alongside existing investors such as March Capital, National Grid Partners, and Slaughter and May.

Luminance was initially developed by Cambridge-based academics Adam Guthrie and Dr. Graham Sills, with seed funding provided by the late Dr. Mike Lynch, founder of Autonomy, who passed away in a tragic accident last year.

The company utilizes specialist AI, referred to as a “Panel of Judges,” to automate and enhance a business’s approach to contracts, including generation, negotiation, and post-execution analysis.

With over 700 clients across more than 70 countries, Luminance’s client base includes prominent companies such as AMD, Hitachi, LG Chem, SiriusXM, Rolls-Royce, and Lamborghini. The firm has also experienced significant growth, tripling its headcount in North America with the opening of offices in San Francisco, Dallas, and Toronto, and expanding its US headquarters in New York.

Luminance operates its own proprietary Large Language Model (LLM), with its main product, Lumi Go, enabling customers to send draft agreements to counterparties for auto-negotiation by AI.

Rather than relying on a Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT), Luminance utilizes a Legal Pre-trained Transformer (LPT), trained on over 150 million verified legal documents, many of which are non-public. This approach makes its platform more defensible compared to other law tech startups that build on existing general-purpose GenAI LLMs.

Eleanor Lightbody, CEO of Luminance, stated in a call with TechCrunch:

“Our AI is domain-specialized, built with lawyers in mind. It’s crucial for them to understand that the outputs are validated and trustworthy, which is exactly what our specialized AI achieves.”

Lightbody emphasized the importance of a mixed model approach, where different models can verify each other’s accuracy, providing the most accurate and transparent answers.

She claimed this approach sets Luminance apart from its competitors, allowing clients to utilize the platform throughout the entire contract lifecycle.

Sri Chandrasekar, Managing Partner of Point72 Private Investments, noted in a statement: “We are familiar with this market and strongly believe in the potential of next-generation AI to revolutionize contracting processes across the enterprise.”

Luminance was the third company founded by the late Dr. Mike Lynch, following Darktrace and Autonomy.