Responding To Strong Market Interest In Its Gen AI Product, Josef Closes ‘Lightning-Fast’ Funding Round

Authorized automation firm Josef has closed what it’s describing as a lightning-fast funding spherical as a way to capitalize on market response to Josef Q, the AI-powered product it introduced out of beta in November 2023 that permits authorized and compliance groups to simply create self-service Q&A instruments.

Members within the spherical have been Josef’s current three buyers: OIF Ventures, Carthona Capital and The LegalTech Fund. The announcement was made in Miami on the TLTF Summit, the convention produced by The LegalTech Fund.

The quantity of this funding spherical was not disclosed. The Australia-based firm had beforehand raised $3.5 million in 2022, $2.5 million in 2022, and $1 million in 2019.

Since increasing into the North American market in 2022, Josef has added clients from  company authorized and compliance groups together with L’Oréal and Bumble, the worldwide insurance coverage firm Bupa, main regulation corporations comparable to Orrick and Gunderson Dettmer, and regulation colleges comparable to NYU and Cornell.

“If you’re on to a great factor on this market, it’s important to transfer quick,” stated Josef cofounder and CEO Tom Dreyfus. “The response to Josef Q has been overwhelming, notably from authorized and compliance groups in Fortune 500 firms. This funding top-up will permit us to capitalize on these alternatives and to proceed to steer the market in dependable and correct authorized AI.”

Zach Posner, cofounder and managing director of The LegalTech Fund, informed me that Josef Q has quickly gained traction amongst company clients. He praised the corporate for having quickly layered generative AI onto the no-code platform it had began out with, making a product that the company market has present nice curiosity in.

“It’s a easy, low-stakes manner for them to be utilizing generative AI to unravel large ache factors,” he stated. These ache factors contain the numerous completely different insurance policies that apply inside a company however that many staff don’t perceive. “So when you’ll be able to ask precisely what it is advisable to know and get the correct reply shortly, it is sensible and folks begin utilizing it.”

The corporate first introduced the beta launch of Josef Q in March 2023 and launched it to normal availability in November 2023.

Developed in partnership with OpenAI, Josef Q makes use of AI to remodel insurance policies and rules — comparable to these pertaining to privateness, information safety, HR and procurement — into digital Q&A instruments, in order that staff or purchasers can simply get solutions to coverage and compliance questions.

Josef says it would use the funding to proceed constructing out AI controls and guardrails, together with human-in-the-loop moderation and escalation pathways which have been designed particularly for authorized and compliance.

It’s going to additionally proceed to embed Josef into the broader authorized know-how ecosystem, enhancing its integrations with the Microsoft Suite, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Slack and extra.

“The founders’ means to determine the correct methods to deploy GenAI for authorized and compliance groups continues to set them aside,” stated Jerry Stesel, accomplice at OIF Ventures. “Josef Q provides controllable, reliable and hyper-accurate authorized AI constructed to scale.”

For authorized and compliance groups, the corporate says, Josef Q permits them to develop correct and managed AI instruments that the enterprise can use to reply advanced and high-value questions.

One instance is insurance coverage firm Bupa, which has used Josef Q to create business-facing instruments for its authorized advertising and marketing playbook and throughout its suite of HR insurance policies.

“Josef Q provides the guardrails we have to construct instruments that may deal with excessive worth, confidential info,” stated Claire Nuske, head of authorized operations at Bupa. “We’re remodeling the best way we work, and driving actual efficiencies in our enterprise, and Josef offers us the boldness we have to ship self-service experiences at scale.”

As I beforehand reported, throughout the personal proof-of-concept part of Josef Q’s growth that preceded its business launch, members constructed and deployed instruments throughout authorized, compliance, privateness and information, HR, authorized operations, tax and extra. The use circumstances included instruments that:

Offered automated steering on landlord-tenant legal guidelines in Ithaca and New York Metropolis.
Helped customer-facing groups in a monetary providers firm determine and cope with susceptible clients in accordance with regulatory necessities.
Answered questions on new tax legal guidelines and rules, together with the Inflation Discount Act.

Sam Flynn, Josef’s cofounder and COO, says that authorized and compliance groups are realizing that deploying AI in high-risk contexts is more durable than it seems. As they arrive to that realization, “they’re turning to us to point out them how one can deploy this highly effective know-how safely and successfully.”