[ad_1]
Contract management is not really an exciting topic, but it's a real problem for many companies. It also lends itself to automation, thanks to recent advances in machine learning and natural language processing. It is therefore not surprising that this space is generating renewed interest and that investors are investing more. Earlier this week, for example, Icertis raised a $ 115 million E Series round for a valuation of more than $ 1 billion. Icertis has been in this business for ten years. In contrast, Lexion, the contract management start-up, announced today that it has raised $ 4.2 million under the direction of Madrona Venture Group and the US Department of Finance. Law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, one of the first users of the product.
Lexion was incubated at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2), one of four scientific research institutes recently co-founded by Microsoft. The co-founder and CEO of the company, Gaurav Oberoi, is a bit of a serial entrepreneur. Its first start, BillMonk, was first introduced on TechCrunch in 2006. Its second reshuffle was Precision Polling, which SurveyMonkey later acquired. launched. Oberoi founded the company with Emad Elwany, a former research software development engineer at Microsoft, and veteran engineering James Baird.
<img clbad = "breakout aligncenter size-full wp-image-1857757" title = "4-arrangement-autorenewal-clause" src = "https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/4- understanding-autorenewal-clause.png "alt =" 4 understanding of the autorenewal clause” width=”1024″ height=”377″ srcset=”https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/4-understanding-autorenewal-clause.png 2740w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/4-understanding-autorenewal-clause.png?resize=150,55 150w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/4-understanding-autorenewal-clause.png?resize=300,111 300w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/4-understanding-autorenewal-clause.png?resize=768,283 768w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/4-understanding-autorenewal-clause.png?resize=680,251 680w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/4-understanding-autorenewal-clause.png?resize=50,18 50w” sizes=”(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”/>
"Gaurav, Emad and James are the kind of entrepreneurs we love to support: smart, customer obsessed and attacking a big market with cutting-edge technology," said the Madrona Venture Group. General Manager Tim Porter. "AI2 has some of the best machine learning solutions in place, and contract management is a perfect example. This is a major problem for businesses of all sizes, and the demand for contract visibility is growing as companies face increasing regulatory and compliance pressures. "
Contract management becomes a bit congested, as Oberoi acknowledges. But he argues that Lexion is attacking a different market than its competitors.
<img clbad = "breakout aligncenter size-full wp-image-1857756" title = "5-extraction-in-action-animation" src = "https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ 5-extraction-in-action-animation.gif "alt =" 5 extraction in action animation” width=”1024″ height=”546″/>
"We believe that there is a growing demand and opportunity in the middle market," he said. "I think that, as in the 2000s, Siebel or other companies offered very expensive customer relationship management software, there is now Salesforce. – and now Salesforce is the most expensive version – and you have this long tail of products in the middle market. I think the same thing happens for contracts. […] We work with companies as small as post-seed or post-series A to a publicly traded company. "
Since she manages a lot of highly confidential information, it is not surprising that Lexion says she takes security very seriously. "I think every young start-up that goes into business or business in 2019 has to tackle it from the start," Oberoi said. "We have realized, even before raising funds and taking the growth of this business very seriously, that security must be part of our DNA and our culture from the beginning." He also noted that each new functionality and each new product iteration at Lexion are applied. a security review.
Like most startups at this point, Lexion plans to invest this new funding in building its product – and in particular its artificial intelligence engine – as well as in its marketing and commercialization strategy.
Source link
