As America Celebrates its 250th, DefenseTech & GovTech Take Center Stage
As America celebrated its 250th birthday, headlines reported on an investment “boom” in startups focusing on national security. 🎆
Ahead of the July 4th holiday weekend, Fortune reported on the “defense tech boom,” noting that VCs had deployed a record $19.8 billion into the sector across 262 deals in the first quarter of 2026, according to PitchBook. (That number in Q1 2024 was $5.7 billion, and in Q1 2025 was about $17 billion.) Tectonic reported in early July that the H1 total for 2026 was a record $35.6B invested in defense and defense-adjacent startups, a total number which included space, quantum, semiconductors and microelectronics, advanced manufacturing, and energy (primarily nuclear) startups, and a 40% increase from 2025.
Monica Zent is a LegalTech pioneer, entrepreneur, investor, and founder of ZentLaw, one of the first Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSPs) in the United States. She writes about LegalTech, artificial intelligence, legal operations, venture capital, enterprise innovation, and the future of legal services. Through her thought leadership, speaking engagements, and advisory work, Monica helps organizations and investors navigate emerging technologies and the evolving legal landscape. Learn more about Monica, her work, and her latest insights at MonicaZent.com.
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LegalTech, Venture Capital & AI for Good
Startling statistics from the Legal Services Corporation reveal the degree to which low-income Americans report not having received any or enough legal assistance for civil legal problems. Specifically: Could AI-powered LegalTech innovation help address such needs? While the vast majority of VC funding and startup activity in LegalTech is focused on the enterprise sector, for…
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Alternative Legal Services Providers (ALSPs): A Look Back, and What’s Ahead
Professional services, including legal, stand at an AI inflection point, with rapid changes ongoing and even greater transformations on the horizon ahead – and sometimes, in order to look forward, it helps to first also take a look back. For this edition of Venture Legal, I wanted to look back at the evolution of a…
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The Future of AI + LegalTech @ SF Tech Week
As cloud computing and AI expert David Linthicum recently wrote, “AI is often described as a transformative technology, but transformation is anything but easy.” That’s why, as AI transforms the legal sector, it was imperative to convene a panel during SF Tech Week composed of legal industry leaders who’ve made AI work – Okta’s Russell…
