Rami Karabibar and Ray Mieszaniec were rejected from Y Combinator at least three times. And that was just the beginning.
“We lost track, but we had hundreds of meetings with VCs,” said Karabibar, who in 2019 cofounded legal AI startup EvenUp with Mieszaniec and Saam Mashhad. “They kept saying to us: ‘What are you doing? Legal tech sucks, AI sucks, personal injury sucks. Those are three negatives.’”
Mieszaniec adds, “Some investors said: ‘Your founding team is great, but this is the dumbest idea.’”
Karabibar, Mieszaniec, and I are talking five years later—and the conversation has radically changed. Legal AI companies are some of the hottest in the market, and EvenUp, focused on the $61 billion personal injury space, has gone from chasing to being chased: The company has now secured its fourth funding round in about two years. EvenUp has raised a $150 million Series E, led by Bessemer Venture Partners, Fortune has learned. This brings the company’s valuation to north of $2 billion. B Capital, SignalFire, Lightspeed, HarbourVest, Adams Street, and Broadlight Capital all invested in the round, as did the venture arm of Lexis Nexis owner RELX. EvenUp’s total capital raised is now at $385 million, and the company is solving personal injury’s relentless paperwork problem.
