Hoping to mark huge leap into legal tech's future, Clio buys startup vLex for $1B
Clio has purchased Spanish startup vLex for a whopping $1 billion. The combination of the Canadian software company Clio, a cloud-based legal tech leader utilized by more than 200,000 legal professionals, and vLex, a legal intelligence and global research platform, which includes Fastcase and Vincent AI (vLex’s AI platform), was announced Monday.
According to a press release, the deal hopes to mark a huge leap into the future of legal technology that should help legal teams manage, research and execute all their legal work in a single system.
“By bringing together the business and practice of law in a unified platform, we’re revolutionizing every aspect of legal work,” said Jack Newton, the CEO and founder of Clio in a statement. “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.”
Clio users will be able to research and draft via Vincent, which is powered by more than a billion legal documents—the most comprehensive legal library internationally, the company says. It includes the ability to use multimodal audio and video analysis, customizable workflows and legal theory testing.
With its acquisition, Clio, which is also an advertiser with the ABA Journal, will be able to expand and innovate within the legal industry with the complete delivery of legal services.
“This signals the onset of a transformative era in the legal industry, unlike anything we’ve seen before,” said Lluis Faus, the CEO and co-founder of vLex in a statement. “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.”
While Curt Sigfstead, the CFO of Clio, declined to comment on any antitrust scrutiny with regard to the massive acquisition, he tells the ABA Journal that law firms don’t need to be concerned with cross-border data privacy compliance, as Clio has already been operating in most of the vLex jurisdictions.
He adds employees at both companies should expect to keep their positions, as they aren’t anticipating any cost-cutting or restructuring measures.
The deal, which is expected to be finalized later this year, is subject to closing conditions and regulatory approvals. In the interim, the companies are operating as independent organizations. They are not anticipating altering the organization of the vLex team.
“We are focused on keeping every individual at vLex,” Sigfstead says.
The $1 billion will be paid via a combination of cash and stocks.
Just 1 year ago, Clio was valued at $3 billion after raising $900 million in a Series F investment round led by New Enterprise Associates and other new partners.
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