Chicago-based legal-software maker Relativity has 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. In announcing the move, Relativity said the deal will help the company give its clients more functionality for monitoring employee communications for regulatory compliance.
VerQu is only the second company Relativity has acquired since its founding in 2001. In 2016, it purchased Content Analyst for an undisclosed price.
As part of the acquisition, VerQu’s software will be integrated into Relativity’s SaaS products, which will allow it to better handle chat-based communications from software like Slack and Microsoft Teams. Founded in 2013, VerQu’s clients range from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. VerQu was completely bootstrapped, raising no venture capital, Relativity said.
“It’s imperative that the legal and compliance industries stay ahead of and evolve with the changing nature of work in organizations globally,” said Relativity CEO Mike Gamson in a statement. “Enterprise communications will continue to shift rapidly and scale from traditional channels like email toward chat and collaboration platforms. That’s why Relativity is committed to investing in technology that connects directly to native cloud data sources for surveillance and e-discovery workflows, evolving the data paradigm from documents to include conversations.”
Relativity, formerly known as kCura, is used by more than 13,000 organizations 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. In 2019, Gamson, a LinkedIn veteran and angel investor was brought on as CEO, and Sieja became executive chairman.
The company 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 an 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.
In 2015, Relativity raised $125 million from Iconiq Capital, the only outside investment the firm has taken. Outside of the United States, the company has offices in London, Hong Kong, Australia and Poland. The company employs 1,200 people worldwide, 900 of whom are in Chicago. Relativity is keeping all 32 of VerQu's employees, the company said.
