Contract Lifecycle Management Heats Up: Inside the Past, Present and AI-Powered Future
Is Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) a Sleepy Category of Legal Tech or waking back up?
When Ironclad announced that it had crossed $200 million in annual recurring revenue in February, Business Insider heralded the moment with a headline that stated the Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) sector “is showing new signs of life.”
BI noted that Ironclad isn’t just competing with other CLM vendors such as Agiloft and Sirion, but also a “swarm of startups” built on LLMs, while even the foundational models move closer to the legal space.
Contracting is not going away. What’s different is how the work gets done. On that note, a new crop of AI-infused contracts intelligence tools are seeking to disrupt the CLM category or, perhaps, serve as an extension of it.
The latest Venture Legal feature story examines:
- The basics. What is CLM and why it matters.
- A brief history of CLM tools.
- The rise of AI-infused CLM.
- Recent investment activity in the space.
- Putting CLM to work.
A timely event, “Turning Contract Chaos into Intelligence: A Candid Conversation,” and a new podcast interview!
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.
-
5 LegalTech VC Trends to Watch
It seems that almost every week brings headlines of another multimillion-dollar LegalTech funding round. Supio, a Seattle-based AI platform designed for personal injury and mass tort plaintiff law firms, announced it had raised $60 million in Series B funding led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from Mayfield and Thomson Reuters Ventures. This latest round brought the…
-
LegalTech and the IPO Market-RIP or Activity Ahead?
Business Insider wrote that the much-anticipated IPO comeback may not materialize as expected. Despite optimism that 2025 would bring new momentum, the first quarter told a different story, with both Klarna and StubHub delaying their IPO plans. Against this backdrop of market uncertainty, I wanted to examine the potential for IPOs in the LegalTech sector and consider…
-
Thinking Outside the “LegalTech” Box
What do FinTech, DefenseTech, Procurement, and Cybersecurity have in common? These areas can all be viewed as part of a wider LegalTech ecosystem, where legal teams increasingly intersect with multiple functions. Corporate legal departments are expected to interact with IT, marketing, procurement, human resources, finance, and more. This level of cross-functional collaboration is becoming essential…
