The boss of legal tech firm Legora says troubled Robin AI had ‘two parallel business models’.
Last month, City AM revealed London-based legal firm Robin AI was put up for sale on an insolvency marketplace after fundraising ambitions fell short.
In the same month, it was hit with a winding-up petition by HMRC. The legal start-up was unable to close a $50m (£38m) funding round and is currently exploring its future options. According to Artificial Lawyer, the firm is very close to securing a rescue buyer.
Commenting on this, Max Junestrand told City AM: “From my perspective, they had sort of two parallel business models, one of which was direct legal services that they were providing to corporates. They were actually providing the legal service itself, and the second one was the software business.”
Max Junestrand, CEO and co-founder of Legora
“As an up-and-coming company, you need to focus… I think it becomes very difficult to have two business models, two different focuses, and kind of rally your business around that,” he explained.
He added that he also thought Robin AI’s timing was slightly difficult to understand, as they were founded pre-Generative AI, and they did not make the “pivot from pre-large language models (LLMs) to LLMS fast enough or well enough”, which would have hurt them.
“However, I have huge respect for the team there and the founders,” Junestrand stated.
“The truth is not all startups will succeed, and one of the benefits of being in a very competitive market is, of course, that you’re observing what other folks are doing. And so I think a lot of what they’ve done, everybody can take learnings from,” he added.
Robin AI was set up by Richard Robinson in May 2019, who was a trainee at the magic circle firm Clifford Chance until July 2016. Before launching the legal tech firm, Robinson was also an associate at Boies, Schiller & Flexner, before the office exodus when Natasha Harrison left to set up Pallas Partners.
Speaking to City AM in February 2024 as part of Square Mile and Me, Robinson said, “Robin AI’s goal is to bring down the costs of legal services and make them much more accessible for everyone”.