Chicago legal tech company Relativity has taken a strategic growth investment from a private equity firm as it looks to accelerate global growth and differentiate its technology offerings.
California-based Silver Lake, which specializes in tech investing, is investing an undisclosed amount into Relativity, a deal that makes the company now valued at about $3.6 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. Silver Lake, which has also invested in tech giants like Airbnb, Dell and Expedia, is now Relativity’s largest shareholder with a significant minority stake in the company and representatives are joining Relativity’s board of directors.
Relativity, which announced the news Thursday afternoon, said that the investment will allow it to expand its business and improve its artificial intelligence capabilities. Relativity, formerly known as kCura, debuted as a tech and software consultancy but eventually pivoted to focus solely on its e-discovery software for lawyers — a product named Relativity. To make it clear that it was primarily a SaaS company, it changed its named from kCura to Relativity in 2017. Now, its software specializes in managing large volumes of data to quickly identify key issues during litigation, internal investigations and compliance operations.
RelativityOne, the firm’s cloud platform, has led the company’s growth as the number of customers and the amount of data being managed on the platform has doubled in the past 12 months, the company said.
“This partnership will help us continue to build upon our strong foundation with our dynamic global community of users, customers and partners as we carry out our mission and drive the industry forward,” said CEO Mike Gamson in a statement.
Relativity says it has more than 300,000 annual users worldwide. Its customers include the U.S. Department of Justice and a host of nationally recognized law firms. The company was launched by Andrew Sieja, but in 2019, Gamson, a LinkedIn veteran and angel investor was brought on as CEO, and Sieja became executive chairman.
In 2015, Relativity raised $125 million from Iconiq Capital, the only outside investment the firm has taken. Relativity said on Thursday that ICONIQ will remain a key investor.
Outside of the United States, the company has offices in London, Hong Kong, Australia and Poland. The company employs 1,200 people worldwide, about 900 of whom are in Chicago.
In January, Relativity acquired VerQu, a New Jersey-based company that helps enterprise clients manage data for record retention and compliance purposes. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
