Winston Weinberg, co-founder of legal AI company Harvey, marked his 30th birthday not with a party but with work calls and a walk by the beach. He believes founders must “outcare and outwork” competitors in an industry where speed is everything.
Founded in 2022 by Weinberg (a former lawyer) and ex-DeepMind scientist Gabe Pereyra, Harvey has grown from one client to more than 500, including major law firms and in-house legal teams at KKR and Bridgewater. Its annual recurring revenue has reached $100 million, and it was recently valued at $5 billion after a funding round backed by Kleiner Perkins, Coatue, Sequoia, OpenAI, and Google Ventures.
Harvey utilises large language models to expedite legal tasks, such as document review and research, thereby freeing lawyers to focus on higher-level work. Its first major client was A&O Shearman, and since then it has rapidly expanded globally, opening offices in London, New York, San Francisco, and soon Australia, Toronto, Germany, and India. It also entered a partnership with LexisNexis to develop litigation tools.
Investors see Harvey as transformative: Sequoia’s Pat Grady noted that it produces better results than junior associates. However, critics argue that it is little more than a legally flavoured ChatGPT, with some dismissing it as Silicon Valley hype. Harvey counters that its purpose-built legal focus, multi-model system, bulk document handling, and enterprise security set it apart.
The company charges a few hundred dollars per user each month. Its valuation far exceeds rivals like Luminance, Legora, and Noxtua. Though Weinberg hints at a future stock market listing, he prefers Harvey to remain independent for now.
Weinberg, who spends much of the year living out of hotels, acknowledges the surreal pace of Harvey’s rise: “We need to move really, really fast – but actually don’t break things.”
Source afr.com
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