Wordsmith AI raises $25m - hits $100m valuation in record time

Edinburgh-based legal tech startup Wordsmith AI has raised $25 million in a Series A round, reaching a $100 million valuation a little over a year after launch - a milestone it claims is the fastest in Scottish startup history.

The company builds AI tools that help in-house legal teams respond to requests, review contracts and work more efficiently. It integrates directly into platforms like Slack, Word and Google Docs, allowing teams in departments like sales, HR and procurement to get legal help without sending everything through the legal department.

The round brings Wordsmith’s total funding to $30 million.

Not just for lawyers

Wordsmith says its AI agents "show up directly in the business’s workflow" to speed up internal processes and reduce bottlenecks. The platform is already used by companies including Deliveroo, Trustpilot, Remote.com and Multiverse, and the company is planning new offices in London and New York later this year.

Founder and CEO Ross McNairn - a former lawyer who later held senior product roles at various tech-enabled companies - says Wordsmith aims to shift legal from a "service desk" model to something more embedded in the day-to-day running of the business.

The rise of the legal engineer

Alongside the funding, Wordsmith is betting on the rise of a new role inside legal teams: the "legal engineer." These are professionals who manage and customise the company’s AI agents - a function traditionally handled by legal ops but now requiring a mix of legal knowledge and technical fluency.

"We’re redefining the role of legal. Every lawyer should have tools that scale their judgment. Every team should have seamless access to legal thinking. We’re building the bridge", McNairn said.

What's next

Wordsmith plans to use the funding to expand its engineering team, grow in the US and Europe, and launch a training programme for legal professionals adopting the platform.

The company joins a growing group of well-funded UK startups trying to modernise legal workflows within large organisations with generative AI, including the likes of Luminance, Juro, Robin AI and Summize - but says its focus is on making legal support easier for the whole business, not just the legal team.