Irish co-founded legal AI startup Wordsmith raises $70m

Robbie Falkenthal

Wordsmith, co-founded by Dublin-born chief operating officer Robbie Falkenthal, is used by more than 500 in-house legal teams worldwide.

Wordsmith plans to grow to 300 people globally by the end of the year and also push further into the US, while supporting demand from corporate legal departments looking to bring more work in-house and rely less on outside legal counsel. Wordsmith counts the Financial Times, Revolut, BT, Penneys, and Irish fintech Wayflyer among its client base of over 500 corporates. 

“Ireland is where I’m from, and as a country with so many major companies basing their European headquarters here, it’s a place where we see great potential. We are going to be expanding in Ireland this year and building out a presence which will support our growing Irish customer base,” said Mr Falkenthal, who was born in Dublin and grew up in Co. Wexford.

“In-house legal teams here”, continued Mr Falkenthal, “face the same pressure as everywhere else: handle more of the work internally rather than sending it to a law firm, and show the business what legal is actually doing”.

Wordsmith is built specifically for in-house legal teams. “Wordsmith is the front door that does the work,” said Ross McNairn, chief executive and co-founder. “Requests come in, the routine gets handled, lawyers approve what needs judgment, and every step is recorded as it happens.”

Wordsmith was founded at the end of 2023 by Messrs McNairn and Falkenthal and CTO Volodymyr Giginiak. Mr McNairn is a former lawyer who helped scale Perk and held senior roles at Skyscanner before its $1.7 billion exit. Mr Falkenthal spent more than six years at KPMG in Dublin before senior leadership roles at Perk.