Last week, we announced Luminance’s $40m Series B funding round led by growth-stage venture firm, March Capital. In case you missed it, you can read all about it here. I couldn’t be prouder of this milestone, and the validation it provides of our AI, our position in the market and our vision for the future.

It’s also been a time to reflect. Ever since I joined Luminance nearly three years ago, the vision has been clear. The team had put the time and effort in developing our proprietary legal LLM in the early years, then getting our technology validated by arguably one of the hardest markets in the world, law firms. That set the stage for success when we launched our flagship ‘Corporate’ product in 2021. We unlocked a whole new addressable target, bringing specialist, ‘legal-grade’ AI to organisations around the world. Fast forward two years and we’ve seen incredible levels of growth – 5x ARR growth to be precise – and we now work with some of the largest organisations in the world, Koch Industries, Hitachi, LG Chem to name a few. With so many opportunities on our doorstep, now seemed like the perfect time to double down on the momentum we’ve seen and invest for growth.

In my various conversations with journalists last week, the first question was often the same: what do you plan to do with the money? For me, it’s three-fold:

1. Grow – I want to propel Luminance’s global growth and expand our footprint in the US. Our customer base already spans 70 countries and a third of our revenue is generated in the US, so now is the time to go after the market. That means hiring into our New York office, opening additional offices, and making some senior hires in the region. Globally, we’ll be hiring across the board and will look to open another European office in the near future.

2. Scale – It’s also about being included in more and more conversations. Whether you’re in Legal, Sales, HR or Procurement, when anyone comes into contact with a contract, I want them to think of Luminance. We’ve already started to see this, with more and more household names now knocking on our door. With this funding we can scale to meet that demand.

3. Innovate – In the last 12 months alone, we’ve released a host of genuinely ground-breaking developments in the technology. From a first-of-its-kind chatbot that enables instant Q&A and automated re-drafting, to our ‘Self-Serve’ functionality which empowers non-legal teams to review and negotiate third-party contracts, and (my personal favourite) ‘Auto Mark-Up’, which allows users to bring any agreement into line with a company’s standards in one click! Luminance is truly end-to-end, bringing best-in-class AI to every single touchpoint a business has with its contracts. That is revolutionary and this funding will help us sustain what already sets Luminance apart in the market: unparalleled innovation.

When I look to the future, our vision is clear. We’re creating a network effect. I see a future where both sides of a contract negotiation will be using Luminance’s AI to achieve an optimal position for their business. When you combine that with the fact that Luminance’s models are getting more and more sophisticated in their memory – i.e. understanding and learning how lawyers and businesses work – that makes our proposition very powerful.

For now, I can say two things for sure. 1) The problems we are solving are not going away. Increasing regulatory complexity, productivity demands, and cost pressures are challenges facing businesses around the world every single day. And 2) The future is bright for Luminance.