Last Updated: 6 February 2025
Ivo has secured a $16 million Series A round to expand its AI-powered platform dedicated to simplifying contract review.
Ivo's platform addresses a persistent bottleneck in the contract lifecycle by automatically aligning documents with company requirements.
Rather than sacrificing quality for speed, Ivo’s software generates precise, natural-sounding redlines—an approach that has already won over more than 150 corporate legal teams, including Canva, Pipedrive, Blue Cross Blue Shield Kansas City, and multiple Fortune 500 companies.
As contract volumes grow, corporate lawyers face mounting pressure to approve agreements faster without overlooking crucial details. “When I was a corporate lawyer, contract review was amongst the most manual and time-consuming tasks,” says Ivo Co-founder and CEO, Min-Kyu Jung. This sentiment has driven Ivo to refine its AI so lawyers can focus on strategic and complex issues, rather than the repetitive task of redlining contracts.
"Ivo reduced our average time to approve counterparty NDAs for signatures from four days to two, while first pass turn improved from an average of 11 hours to 5 minutes."
Adrie Christiansen, Legal Operations Lead at Quora
Geotab’s legal team similarly reports a 75% efficiency gain, demonstrating Ivo’s potential to free legal departments from time-intensive contract reviews.
With fresh funding in hand, Ivo will accelerate product development and expand features like Ivo Search Agent, a new capability that removes the need for painstaking metadata tagging. Instead, Ivo enables legal teams to search and analyze contracts across cloud solutions such as Box and SharePoint, as well as local storage, with minimal implementation required.
Future goals include deepening integration with existing contract lifecycle management (CLM) platforms and enhancing customization options.
By refining its AI to learn from in-house legal expertise, Ivo aims to help enterprises handle increasing volumes of complex agreements without compromising precision or control.
Founded in New Zealand and now headquartered in San Francisco, Ivo was born from the firsthand experience of legal professionals who saw how contract review could delay critical business opportunities.
Determined to develop a solution that lawyers could trust, Min-Kyu Jung taught himself to code after leaving his legal career and assembled a team that combines legal backgrounds with tech expertise.
Today, the company’s offering—anchored by AI-driven contract analysis—has attracted a clientele that values both efficiency and accuracy. Ivo’s approach prioritizes legal judgment while accelerating the review process, ultimately enabling business users to handle simpler tasks under the watchful guidance of internal legal teams.
"We’re building Ivo to ensure this change enhances rather than diminishes the crucial role of legal judgment. Our vision is to give every legal team the power to handle enterprise-scale contract volumes while maintaining the highest standards of accuracy and control."
Min-Kyu Jung, CEO and Co-founder at IVO
Behind this expansion is a network of seasoned investors who believe AI tools can alleviate time-consuming administrative work.
Led by Costanoa Ventures, the raise brings the company’s total funding to $22.2 million and includes participation from Fika Ventures, Uncork Capital, NFDG, Blackbird VC, GD1, and Phase One Ventures.
This influx of capital underscores a growing market interest in tools that streamline legal processes while maintaining high standards of accuracy.
Ivo’s early backing came from Daniel Gross, followed by a $4.8 million seed round led by Fika Ventures and Uncork Capital.
"Ivo is fundamentally transforming contract review for lawyers and legal teams. By leveraging AI to manage the meticulous, painstaking work of contract review, Ivo gives legal teams tools designed by lawyers to work faster with greater accuracy. In a world where legal organizations are constantly under pressure to meet business demands and improve efficiency, the launch of Ivo's new search tool will allow legal teams to search and generate reports across their entire contract portfolio, significantly reducing their workload and increasing efficiency."
Amy Cheetham, Partner at Costanoa Ventures
