Avvoka Announces £14m Investment Led by Mark O’Hare’s Valhalla Ventures to Scale AI-powered Drafting Infrastructure for Law Firms - Legal Reader
Summary
Avvoka, a legaltech platform founded in 2016 by former Magic Circle lawyers Eliot Benzecrit and David Howorth, has announced a £14 million growth investment led by Mark O’Hare’s Valhalla Ventures. This marks Valhalla Ventures’ first investment since the sale of Preqin to BlackRock. Avvoka focuses on embedding AI within existing rules-based automation frameworks, addressing the need for structured systems and governance as law firms adopt generative AI for contract drafting.
The company currently works with over 20% of the Am Law 100, including firms like A&O Shearman, Fenwick, and Ropes & Gray, and has seen significant expansion. The new funding will be used to deepen the platform’s capabilities and accelerate expansion into the US market. Avvoka’s platform transforms legal documents into templates, automating variables and clauses while maintaining consistency with firm standards.
Mark O’Hare of Valhalla Ventures emphasized that Avvoka recognizes drafting as an infrastructure problem, not just a tooling issue, and is positioned to help firms scale their expertise with AI. Avvoka aims to provide legal teams with the infrastructure to manage high-volume, high-variation work while maintaining governance, control, and respect for institutional knowledge.
(Source:Legal Reader)