Contract Lifecycle Management Heats Up: Inside the Past, Present and AI-Powered Future
Is CLM a sleepy category of LegalTech 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 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!
-
VC as an Asset Class
“As Figma goes public, a turning point in the long-awaited IPO market recovery takes shape,” read Fortune’s headline. The IPO came after a planned merger with Adobe fell apart in 2023, with the design software unicorn’s offering valued at nearly $20 billion. This milestone reflected broader trends in legal tech investments, where venture-backed companies are…
-
How Federal Regulatory Changes are Impacting the Venture Capital Landscape
It was week of “cryptocurrency drama” on the House floor, with the House set to vote on crypto-related bills during the Capitol’s “Crypto Week.” As investors waited to see if crypto regulatory frameworks would pass, the July 4th passage of The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) Act introduced changes for startups and VCs, highlighting the…
-
The Founder Paradox
Jason Shuman, General Partner at Primary Venture Partners, wrote that “It’s never been easier to start a company, and never harder to build a durable one.” That observation resonates strongly in today’s AI and legal tech startup ecosystem. Deals in the billions are becoming regular headlines. AI startup Thinking Machines Lab reportedly secured a $2…
