Nnamdi Emelifeonwu was always curious about what work life was like for his colleague Feargus MacDaeid, one of the few registered blind lawyers in the U.K. Both practiced law at the global firm Freshfields.
When asking about what would make his life easier, the answer was clear: “Help me navigate definitions in complex contracts without losing context,” Emelifeonwu told TechCrunch. He realized the fix to MacDaeid’s request would be useful to every lawyer.
So in 2017, Emelifeonwu and MacDaeid teamed up to launch Definely, an AI legal tech startup allowing lawyers to more seamlessly review and edit complex contracts.
The company, based in the U.K., announced earlier this week a $30 million Series B from a mix of European and North American investors, including Revaia, Alumni Ventures, and Beacon Capital. It had previously raised a $7 million Series A last May.
Definely offers a productivity suite to streamline the legal drafting and review process. It has a Draft feature that lets lawyers read contracts and navigate definitions and clauses without losing their place in the document; it has a Vault, that lets users insert clauses with a single click; it has a Proof feature, which uses AI to check for inconsistencies and broken cross-references, and it has a PDF feature that lets users extract and analyze points from scanned legal documents.
“Looking ahead, we’re building on these capabilities with an agentic AI system we recently launched called Enhance,” Emelifeonwu said, adding that it has AI agents that work with Microsoft Word. “These agents collaborate to complete tasks across drafting, reviewing, and proofreading, streamlining work for legal professionals where they already operate.”
Emelifeonwu described the fundraising process this time around as “arduous.”
“A close second [word] might be rewarding,” he said.
The company met this round’s lead investor, Revaia, through an introduction. The rest of the investors came to the company directly. “We didn’t reach out to one investor during Series B.”
The fresh capital will be used to further the company’s expansion into the U.S., which now accounts for 30% of the company’s revenue, it says. It also hopes to further invest in the AI space and hire more employees.
Others working in the legal contract space in this way include the companies Luminance, Robin AI, and ContractPodAi.
Emelifeonwu, a Nigerian immigrant in the U.K., said he dreamed of being a lawyer since he was a kid but once he became one, he was hit with the entrepreneurial spirit. “I’ve always had ideas, and I explored a few, but when the right idea came along, one that tapped directly into the challenges I experienced firsthand as a lawyer, I knew I had to pursue it,” he continued.
He also understands the importance of such a big round when Black founders don’t, statistically, account for much of the annual venture fundraising activity.
“Having raised fresh capital and building toward a truly global business, it’s both a personal milestone and, I hope, a signal to others that it’s possible,” he said. “I want this to inspire the next wave of builders who may not come from traditional paths but have just as much potential to create lasting impact.”
