Walter team will join Swedish giant to rebuild company’s core technology into Legora’s platform.
Vancouver-based legal AI startup Walter has been acquired by Stockholm legaltech giant Legora as big players in the sector gear up to fight in a competitive market.
“When we saw what the Walter team had built, we immediately recognized a shared philosophy.”
Max Junestrand,
Legora
The two companies announced the acquisition on Wednesday morning, just one day after Legora secured $550 million USD at a $5.5-billion valuation.
Walter was founded in 2022, originally as Minutebook, by serial entrepreneur Ryan Wilson, alongside Karl Campbell and Jon Conlin. The company developed an AI agent for lawyers that integrated with platforms like Microsoft Outlook and iManage and helped them automatically draft, edit, blackline, and manage their documents.
In a similar vein, Legora develops software and AI tools meant to save lawyers’ time, including automatic document drafting and review. The company says its platform is used by tens of thousands of legal professionals across more than 800 law firms and in-house legal teams.
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“When we saw what the Walter team had built, we immediately recognized a shared philosophy around agent-native design,” Legora CEO Max Junestrand said in a statement.
On top of Walter’s established relationships with major Canadian law firms like Fasken and McCarthy Tétrault, Legora said the acquisition positions itself to expand in the Canadian market. The entire Walter team is joining Legora to rebuild its core technology into Legora’s platform, according to Walter’s website. Business Insider reported that most of the team is moving to Stockholm.
A competitive landscape
The legaltech market has become fiercely competitive in the age of AI, as many legal firms are rushing to incorporate the technology into their tools. Industry incumbents like Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis have rolled out their own AI solutions, and legaltech startups like Clio, Spellbook, Legora, and Harvey are all courting large investments. Mark Doble, CEO of Toronto-based legaltech startup Alexi, told BetaKit in October that the competitive landscape of Ai-powered legaltech is akin to a “war.”
A side effect of this has been legaltech companies building out capabilities through acquisitions. A prime example is Burnaby, BC-based Clio, which raised $500-million USD to help buy Spanish-American peer vLex for $1-billion USD last year. The company said at the time that the acquisition would unlock “unprecedented agentic AI capabilities.”
Clio CEO Jack Newton told BetaKit last year that he thought his company could be “the acquirer of choice in legaltech.” However, as evidenced by Legora’s acquisition of Walter, they’re not the only ones shopping. Earlier this month, Toronto-based legal AI startup Spellbook also secured $40 million USD ($54.7 million CAD) in debt financing to scoop up smaller competitors.
Feature image courtesy Walter.