Graham Norton on a horse (Revolut). Gordon Ramsay swearing on the phone (PolyAI). Jude Law smoldering in an ironic kind of way (Legora). AI may be a new technology, but gaining brand recognition in a crowded market still relies on that most old-fashioned of techniques—star-pulling power.
Three-year-old Legora is one of Europe’s fastest-growing AI businesses. It works in the famously conservative legal sector (think whiskery judges partial to a glass of claret at lunchtime). Growth is stellar in a sector ripe for disruption. Backers include NVentures, Nvidia’s corporate VC fund, and leading legal firm, Bird & Bird, which specializes in the tech sector. Its most recent $550 million Series D fundraise valued the business at $5.6 billion. Not bad for a bunch of self-confessed “engineers and hackers” from Sweden.
Outside the world of lawyers, few would have heard of Legora until one of the cheesiest marketing ideas in history (“We’re a legal business, how about getting Jude Law to talk about us?”) became an advertising sensation. For weeks across the U.S. and Europe, Jude Law in a crisp white shirt and sharp grey suit was appearing on social media feeds and staring down from digital billboards from New York to London. Name recognition soared.
