A legal generative AI startup, founded by a Portland tech veterans, has raised $1.7 million in a pre-seed funding round, the company announced Tuesday.
Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI-focused seed fund, led the round for CaseMark AI. The startup was co-founded by Scott Kveton, who also co-founded Urban Airship.
CaseMark uses AI to provide time-savings summaries of documents, including depositions. It has built-in protections against AI “hallucinations” and that offer security and privacy, Kveton said. He said he got the idea for CaseMark from his wife, a partner at a Portland insurance defense firm, Chock Barhoum.
“We dug in last year and said, ‘Let’s take a look at this space, AI is so disruptive, and let’s put pen to paper and get it in front of folks,’” Kveton said.
Kveton's team built the software in “fits and starts” and got feedback from attorneys, learning that they didn’t like the idea of paying a flat monthly fee.
Since January, “thousands” of attorneys have been using CaseMark on a self-service basis. They pay $25 per use under a pay-as-you-go model, Kveton said. In addition, about 20 larger firms have signed deals with CaseMark because they have specific data and security requirements, he said.
“We built a simple solution to allow attorneys to self-start and learn basic prompting,” he said. “They want a big easy button that won’t get them in trouble, that can solve problems they’re dealing with today using AI and that’s faster, but they don’t want to replace every assistant in their law firm.”
Kveton said in an interview that he doesn’t view CaseMark as a threat to lawyers’ or legal associates’ jobs.
“While it technically replaces or speeds up the work they’re doing, one thing people forget is with respect to AI, it’s made it easier to litigate,” he said. “I don’t see jobs being lost. Job satisfaction will go up. Instead of tedium, they can be focused on the important parts of client relationships and strategy. We’re still always going to have trials and in-person depositions, hearings, arbitration and mediation. Those things require real people.”
With 11.5 million depositions done annually in the U.S., the market is huge. There’s also plenty of competition in the space. Portland-based Troy Technology Inc., which raised a $1 million round, developed a platform to automate legal research and documentation, using AI-based semantic searches to sift through documents.
“It’s a wildly competitive space, but we’ve been able to carve out an interesting niche and we’re winning deals because of our team and experience and our focus on security and privacy,” Kveton said.
He describes himself as a serial entrepreneur. He founded CaseMark a year ago after selling his previous company in an “IP/tech transfer play,” he said.
In 2014, Kveton departed Urban Airship, a mobile technology startup, amid controversy in his personal life.
Also coming to CaseMark are two other former Airship employees: Alyssa Meritt, who is chief experience officer, and Steven Osborn, an engineer.
