The Clio Legal Software Company decreases $ 1 billion on the giant of Vlex law data

On Monday, Clio, a 17-year-old Canadian law firm management company, announced that she had agreed to acquire Vlex, an intelligence platform on 26-year-old legal data, as part of a cash and stock and stock agreement.

The announcement comes approximately a year after the huge round of financing for Clio of $ 900 million, which almost doubled the valuation of the company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, against $ 1.6 billion in 2021 to 3 billion dollars.

Vlex, which was largely kicked until it was bought by the Oakley Capital Investment Capital Company in 2022, was a highly sought-after asset, according to Jack Newton, CEO and founder of Clio.

Harvey, the AI-Native legal technology startup, tried to buy Vlex a year ago, but the acquisition did not meet, As indicated by information Last July.

Vlex is a precious property because its legal documents database can considerably improve AI models for lawyers.

“Data is one of the only long -term defended competitive pits that a company can have in space,” Newton told Techcrunch.

Vlex competes with the legal database belonging to Thomson Reuters and Lexisnexis. The acquisition occurs shortly after Harvey announced a Partnership with lexisnexisisaimed at enriching Harvey AI with lexisnexis data.

With the acquisition of Vlex, Clio, which provides law firms with time monitoring, billing and electronic payment tools, now effectively enter the practice of law itself.

In recent years, Vlex has built Vincent, an AI model built above the company’s legal content database.

“The AI ​​will lead a convergence of what has historically been distinct software categories: the activity of law and the practice of law,” said Newton. He added that CLIO customers in the Small and Medium lawyer will now have access to Vincent’s AI capabilities.

In addition to announcing plans to acquire Vlex, Clio said that he had reached $ 300 million in annual recurring income (arr).