For the first time last year, annual investment in legal technology companies reached $1 billion. This year, legal tech investments have already surpassed that, totaling at least $1.2 billion to date — a record for annual investment in legal technology, and with three months still to go before year end.

I surveyed investments in legal technology this year and found a total of $1,190,215,968 invested to date. The actual number is even higher, because two significant investments announced just this month — in LexFox,  a German company that provides legal portals for consumers, and in Axiom, one of the world’s largest alternative legal services providers — did not disclose their amounts.

The year’s biggest deal to date happened just two weeks ago, with news that two major growth equity companies had invested a whopping $250 million in law practice management company Clio. The second biggest deal came just days into 2019, when enterprise-workflow company Onit announced a $200 million investment.

Of the 41 companies listed below, at least 12 are focused on some aspect of contracts and contracting – including contract management, contract review and contract automation. These include four of the top six – Onit, Icertis, ContractPodAI and Fadada.

Three notes about this data:

• Where investment amounts were reported in non-U.S. currencies, I have converted the amounts to U.S. dollars as of the date of this post, not as of the date of the announcements.
• The numbers are based on publicly reported investments, which may not reveal the full picture. For example, I have listed a $40 million investment in Litera based on the amount REPORTED BY THE INVESTOR, HgCapital Trust plc. However, that investment came from a specific fund as part of HG’S ACQUISITION OF LITERA, and the total acquisition price, while not disclosed, is said to have been more than $400 million.
• This chart does not include mergers and acquisitions.

Here are the year’s legal tech investments to date.

In addition to these, there have been other investments in which the amount has not been disclosed. Among these:

• LEXFOX,  a German company that provides legal portals for consumers, announced Sept. 3 that it had raised a “seven-digit round” of financing led by Earlybird and Target Global, but it did not disclose the amount.
• AXIOM, one of the world’s largest alternative legal services providers, announced on Sept. 5 that it has entered into an agreement with private equity firm PERMIRA by which a company backed by Permira funds will take a significant investment in Axiom.