ThoughtRiver

ThoughtRiver has developed a cloud-based SaaS platform that uses artificial intelligence to help companies evaluate the risks of legal contracts and provide clients with a risk evaluation, helping companies manage and understand contract risk more efficiently and cost effectively.

ThoughtRiver completed its SyndicateRoom round in April 2017, overfunding to £700,000.

The story

Historically, to review complicated contracts on behalf of clients, lawyers would have had to manually assess each clause to draw up a risk analysis. ThoughtRiver aims to automate this process by developing a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to scan and interpret information from legal contracts and provide clients with a risk evaluation The aim is to help companies manage and understand contract risk more efficiently and cost effectively.

ThoughtRiver was originally founded in Singapore by Tim Pullan, who at the time was the Head of Technology and Outsourcing Asia at international law firm Taylor Vinters LLP. In 2016 ThoughtRiver set up a UK company (the 100% owner of a Singaporean subsidiary). The online platform is live and generating revenue. The company completed paid beta trials with corporate clients in 2016, including Dentsu Aegis Network, a global media, digital and creative communications business.

ThoughtRiver is currently trialling/rolling out pilots of the newest version of its software with three other early-adopter clients, all of which are large corporates in business services, telecommunications and asset management. The company is further engaged in sales conversations with over 18 household-name multinational corporates and legal services providers.

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The company has been shortlisted for the Legal Geek Startup Award 2016 (Best Document Automation), and featured in a number of articles including the Financial Times, Cambridge Business Magazine, NatWest ContentLive and The Law Society’s report ‘Capturing Technological Innovation in Legal Services’.

The company is raising funds to grow the sales, technical and product teams, invest in marketing and accelerate the development of third-party software integrations.

ThoughtRiver is led by Founder and CEO Tim Pullan, previously a partner at Tite & Lewis and Lawrence Graham LLP. Tim is an international lawyer and technology sector leader with experience in building businesses in law and technology sectors across the world. After becoming a city law firm partner in the early 2000s, he moved to Experian, working in their analytics business until 2006 and becoming Managing Director of the Asia Pacific Division in 2009. He returned to law in 2012 with the aim of bringing data science, especially contract intelligence, to the legal sector.

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The lead investor

Lead investor Duncan Painter is investing £200,000 into ThoughtRiver. Duncan has had an incredibly successful professional and angel investing career so far. He is currently the CEO of Ascential Plc, a business he floated on the LSE in 2016 with a £1bn market cap. He founded ClarityBlue and led the £10m management buyout in 2003 backed by ECI Ventures, selling the business to Experian in 2005 for £85m. He has invested in a number of technology businesses since, including Citation, which exited in 2016 for £185m.

The market opportunity is enormous, the ability to remove inefficient expense and reduce significant risk for companies is very clear, and the team are really expert in their field and passionate about their subject. They have a track record of delivery and have built a really strong product.

Duncan Painter

ThoughtRiver lead investor

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