• Legal tech startup Genie AI has secured a $17.8 million Series A from Google and Khosla Ventures.
• The startup's CEO, Rafie Faruq, says its AI editing platform can "turn around a contract in minutes."
• Check out the 13-slide pitch deck, shared exclusively with BI, that it used to secure the funding.

Legal tech startup Genie AI has just secured a $17.8 million Series A from Google and Khosla Ventures.

Launched in 2017, the London-based startup bills itself as an AI-based legal assistant.

It has developed an editing platform that uses AI to draft and review legal documents. Its tool also drafts personalized agreements across major global jurisdictions and provides users with an open-source library of templates that includes contracts, policies, and letters of intent.

"The main issue that lawyers have is that they are always overworked and understaffed," said Rafie Faruq, the cofounder and CEO of Genie AI. "Our software allows them to turn around a contract in minutes."

Genie AI's platform aims to help businesses reduce costs because "contracts are turned around faster" and "deals get done faster," Faruq told BI.

The startup generates revenue by charging an annual subscription fee based on usage. Genie said that more than 100,000 companies now use its platform, nearly a fourfold increase from the 26,000 listed on its funding pitch deck, shared exclusively with BI.

"We're excited by this because everyone hates the billable hour in law; it incentivizes working long over the value of work," Faruq said. "We're interested in flipping the business model on its head — can we build on value?"

Legal tech has attracted investor interest, with startups such as Robin AI, Leya, and Harvey all raking in funding in recent months.

Genie AI aims to differentiate itself from competitors by providing an open platform through its freemium model. Its competitors are also focused on using Microsoft Word, but Genie has built a proprietary editor that is privacy-aware and enabled by AI, Faruq said.

The Series A round, led by early OpenAI-backer Khosla Ventures and Google Ventures, the tech giant's VC arm, takes the startup's total funding to around $20 million.

Genie AI said the cash injection will allow it to expand in the US. The startup will also focus on innovating its agentic AI capabilities, a type of system that has a degree of autonomy rather than responding to prompts. It's a subsector within the AI ecosystem that has also attracted investor attention.

"Along with developing our agentic AI, we'll be doubling down on our proprietary editor and providing more legal-specific editing workflows," added Faruq.

Check out the 13-slide pitch deck it used to secure the fresh funds.