Definely
AI Word add-ins for contract drafting, review, and proofreading
Website: https://www.definely.com/
Cover Block
PUBLIC
| Name | Definely |
| Tagline | AI Word add-ins for contract drafting, review, and proofreading |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
| Founded | 2017 |
| Stage | Series B |
| Business Model | SaaS |
| Industry | Legaltech |
| Technology | AI / Machine Learning |
| Geography | Western Europe |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2) |
| Funding Label | Series B (total disclosed ~$37,000,000) |
Links
PUBLIC
- Website: https://www.definely.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/definely
- X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/definely_ai
Executive Summary
PUBLIC
Definely is a London-based legal technology company that has secured enterprise adoption for its AI-powered Microsoft Word add-ins, a positioning that merits investor attention due to its recent $30 million Series B raise and its demonstrated traction with elite law firms. Founded in 2017 by two former Freshfields lawyers, Feargus MacDaeid and Nnamdi Emelifeonwu, the company originated from a need for better accessibility tools for visually impaired legal professionals but has since evolved into a broader productivity suite [Perplexity Sonar Pro, Unknown]. Its core product integrates directly into the Word environment used by nearly all corporate lawyers, offering tools for clause insertion, contextual editing, AI drafting, and proofreading, which the company claims can improve workflow speed by 40-70% [Legal Practice Intelligence, Unknown]; [StartupHub.ai, 2025].
The founding team's firsthand experience in Magic Circle deal work provides critical domain credibility for selling into this conservative, high-stakes market. Definely operates a SaaS subscription model and has raised a total of approximately $37 million in disclosed funding, with its Series B in June 2025 led by growth investor Revaia [TechCrunch, June 2025]. Over the next 12-18 months, key monitors will be the scalability of its recently launched agentic AI features, the expansion of its advisor network to bolster sales execution, and the company's ability to convert its strong foothold in UK and European firms into deeper penetration of the North American market.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core company facts and funding are confirmed; customer traction and product claims are sourced from multiple outlets but lack independent verification.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Value |
|---|---|
| Stage | Series B |
| Business Model | SaaS |
| Industry / Vertical | Legaltech |
| Technology Type | AI / Machine Learning |
| Geography | Western Europe |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2) |
| Funding | Series B (total disclosed ~$37,000,000) |
Company Overview
PUBLIC
Definely was founded in 2017 in London by two former Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer lawyers, Feargus MacDaeid and Nnamdi Emelifeonwu. The company's origin is rooted in accessibility, conceived to address the challenges MacDaeid, who is registered blind, faced in reviewing complex legal documents [Perplexity Sonar Pro]. The co-founders met while working on the same transaction at the Magic Circle firm [TL Podcast].
From its start as a tool for visually impaired legal professionals, the company has scaled into a broader productivity platform. Key operational milestones include its selection for the Lloyd's Lab Cohort 8 accelerator in 2022, where it developed specialized tools for insurance documentation [Lloyd's Lab, 2022]. In 2023, Definely was recognized as a Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 winner, which the company notes made it the only LegalTech firm on that list [Definely, 2023] [Legal IT Insider, 2023].
The company's growth trajectory is marked by successive funding rounds. A Series A round of $7 million was secured, though the precise date and lead investor are not publicly detailed in the primary sources [Definely]. This was followed by a $30 million Series B in June 2025, led by growth equity firm Revaia [TechCrunch, June 2025]. The Series B announcement coincided with the launch of an agentic AI system and the formation of an advisor network to support scaling efforts [Definely].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Founding story and key milestones are corroborated by multiple sources, but some funding details lack independent verification.
Product and Technology
MIXED Definely's product is a suite of AI-powered tools built as a Microsoft Word add-in, a deliberate choice to integrate directly into the primary environment where lawyers draft and review contracts. The core suite consists of four modules: Vault for clause insertion, Draft for contextual editing, Enhance for AI drafting, and Proof for proofreading [Definely website]. This architecture allows the company to focus on workflow augmentation rather than document migration, a significant adoption advantage in a conservative industry. The most recent publicized innovation is Cascade, described as a "first-of-its-kind" AI tool designed to detect first, second, and third-order impacts of a single contract edit, aiming to address the complex ripple effects inherent in legal drafting [Nonbillable].
The company claims its Enhance module delivers a 40-70% speed improvement in workflows compared to traditional manual methods [Legal Practice Intelligence]; [StartupHub.ai, 2025]. A separate company claim states the suite saves 45 minutes per lawyer per day [Definely]. While these efficiency metrics are not independently verified, they anchor the product's value proposition in tangible time savings. The underlying technology stack is not detailed publicly, but the recent hiring of Bruno Belcastro to lead AI teams in early 2025 and the launch of an "agentic AI system" suggest a focus on more autonomous, multi-step reasoning models [Attorney at Work, 2025]; [Definely]. The product's origin story, rooted in co-founder Feargus MacDaeid's visual impairment, continues to inform a design philosophy centered on accessibility and reducing cognitive load in dense textual analysis.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core product features confirmed by company website; performance claims are single-source or company-reported.
Market Research
PUBLIC
The market for legal technology, particularly tools that augment high-stakes contract work, is expanding as law firms and corporate legal departments face persistent pressure to improve efficiency without compromising accuracy.
Definely cites the global legal services market at $900 billion, a figure sourced from its own promotional materials [Definely, Unknown]. For a more neutral benchmark, the global legal services market was valued at approximately $1.2 trillion in 2023 by market research firm IBISWorld, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 4.5% projected through 2028 (analogous market, IBISWorld). The specific addressable market for AI-powered drafting and review tools is narrower. Research from Gartner indicates that legal departments will increase their spending on technology threefold by 2025 compared to 2020 levels, with contract lifecycle management (CLM) and AI-assisted review being primary investment areas (analogous market, Gartner).
Demand is driven by several converging factors. Law firms operate on a billable-hour model but face client demands for alternative fee arrangements and cost predictability, creating a direct incentive to reduce time spent on repetitive drafting tasks. In-house legal teams, often viewed as cost centers, are under mandate to do more with less, standardize processes, and mitigate contractual risk. The underlying driver is the document-centric nature of legal work itself; contracts are complex, interlinked, and prone to human error in manual review. Definely's positioning targets this core workflow inefficiency within the larger legal services spend.
Key adjacent markets include broader contract lifecycle management (CLM) platforms, e-discovery software, and regulatory compliance tools. These markets are often served by larger, more generalized platforms. Definely's wedge is specificity: it focuses exclusively on the pre-execution drafting and negotiation phase within Microsoft Word, the dominant authoring environment for lawyers. This focus allows it to compete on depth of integration and workflow familiarity rather than breadth of features. A significant macro force is the accelerating adoption of generative AI across professional services. While this creates tailwinds, it also increases competitive intensity as large software vendors embed similar capabilities into their suites.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Global Legal Services (2023) | 1200 $B |
| Legal Tech Spend Growth (2020-2025) | 3 x |
The chart illustrates the scale of the total market and the disproportionate growth rate expected for technology spending within it. While the absolute TAM is vast, the more relevant signal for a point solution like Definely is the aggressive reallocation of legal budgets toward productivity tools, which suggests a receptive and expanding buyer pool.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Market sizing relies on a single company-cited figure; growth drivers are supported by analogous third-party industry analysis.
Competitive Landscape
MIXED Definely competes not by building a standalone contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform, but by embedding a specialized AI assistant directly into the primary drafting environment for enterprise lawyers: Microsoft Word.
Given that no named competitors were surfaced in the structured research, the analysis proceeds without a formal comparison table. The competitive map is best understood through functional segmentation.
- Direct AI drafting assistants. This is Definely's core segment, where its primary competition comes from other AI-powered Word add-ins and drafting co-pilots. While specific names are not publicly cited, the space includes general-purpose AI writing tools adapted for legal use and a handful of legal-specific plugins. Definely's edge here is its origin in accessibility for a visually impaired lawyer, which forced a foundational focus on contextual understanding and navigation within dense documents, a problem less salient for sighted users [Perplexity Sonar Pro]. This edge is durable if it continues to inform a superior user experience for all lawyers, but it is perishable if competitors with larger R&D budgets replicate the feature set.
- Comprehensive CLM platforms. These are adjacent substitutes. Companies like Icertis, DocuSign CLM, and LinkSquares offer end-to-end contract management, often with AI modules for drafting and review. Their positioning is as a system of record, while Definely positions itself as a system of intelligence within the existing workflow. Definely is most exposed here because these platforms have deeper enterprise integrations, larger sales forces, and the capital to expand their drafting capabilities, potentially making a dedicated add-in redundant for some customers.
- Legacy research and knowledge tools. Another adjacent competitive set includes traditional legal research databases (Westlaw, LexisNexis) and knowledge management systems. Definely's Vault product, for clause insertion, competes with the clause libraries within these systems. Definely's advantage is integration directly into the drafting pane, reducing context-switching. The exposure is that these incumbents have entrenched relationships with law firm libraries and procurement departments.
The most plausible 18-month competitive scenario hinges on platform strategy. If Microsoft significantly enhances the native AI capabilities within Word for legal drafting, all pure-play add-in vendors, including Definely, could face margin pressure and become commoditized. The winner in this scenario would be the CLM platforms that can offer the deepest, most proprietary AI trained on their own vast contract repositories. Conversely, if the legal drafting workflow remains fragmented across multiple point solutions, the loser would be any competitor unable to demonstrate measurable productivity gains. Definely's published claim of a 40-70% speed improvement with its Enhance product is a direct attempt to own this productivity narrative [Legal Practice Intelligence]; [StartupHub.ai, 2025]. Its recent launch of an agentic AI system and an advisor network with seasoned legaltech operators suggests a push to build scalability and go-to-market moats ahead of any platform consolidation [Definely, Unknown]; [Definely, Unknown].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Competitive analysis is inferred from product positioning and market segments; no direct competitor names were confirmed in sources.
Opportunity
PUBLIC Definely's opportunity rests on capturing a meaningful share of the $900 billion global legal services market by becoming the default AI copilot for high-stakes contract work within Microsoft Word, the industry's dominant drafting environment [Definely].
The headline opportunity is the establishment of Definely as a category-defining productivity layer for elite legal professionals. The company is not attempting to replace lawyers or displace the core Word application; instead, it aims to embed itself as an indispensable, intelligent assistant for the most complex and valuable legal work. This outcome is reachable because the cited evidence shows Definely has already achieved what many legaltech startups struggle with: securing adoption within the most prestigious and risk-averse law firms in the world. Its customer list includes Magic Circle and White Shoe firms such as A&O Shearman and Slaughter and May, alongside in-house teams at Barclays and Deloitte [Pulse2, The SaaS News]. This early traction with marquee names provides a powerful beachhead from which to standardize workflows and expand seat penetration, moving from a useful tool to a non-negotiable component of the legal drafting stack.
Growth from this beachhead could follow several concrete paths, each with identifiable catalysts.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise Land-and-Expand | Definely moves from departmental pilots to enterprise-wide licenses within global corporations and law firms, driven by workflow standardization mandates. | The launch of its agentic AI system, designed to supercharge both accuracy and speed, provides a clear performance leap that justifies broader rollout [Definely]. | The company's recent formation of an Advisor Network includes seasoned sales leaders with deep experience in building go-to-market teams for corporate and law firm customers, signaling a focused push on scaling sales [Definely]. |
| Vertical Expansion into Insurance & Compliance | The product suite evolves to dominate specific vertical workflows, starting with the insurance documentation and regulatory compliance use cases explored during its Lloyd's Lab accelerator stint. | A dedicated product module or enhanced features for insurance contract lifecycle management, built on the foundational Word integration. | Definely is already an alumnus of Lloyd's Lab Cohort 8 (2022), where it developed tools for insurance documentation, indicating an established foothold and understanding of this adjacent, document-intensive vertical [Lloyd's Lab, 2022]. |
| Platformization via API | Definely's AI models for clause analysis and impact detection become a backend service embedded within other legal and financial software platforms. | The commercialization of its Cascade tool, which detects first, second, and third-order impacts of a contract edit, as a standalone API [Nonbillable]. | The underlying technology is already productized and described as "first-of-its-kind," suggesting a defensible capability that could be productized for a developer audience [Nonbillable]. |
Compounding for Definely looks like a classic data and workflow lock-in flywheel. Each new enterprise customer contributes anonymized data on drafting patterns, clause libraries, and editing behaviors within complex contracts. This proprietary dataset, unique in its focus on high-value, negotiated agreements rather than high-volume, simple contracts, can be used to continuously refine the AI's suggestions, making the product more accurate and context-aware for all users. This improvement in utility drives deeper adoption within existing accounts (more lawyers, more use cases) and makes the product more attractive to the next peer firm, accelerating sales cycles. Early signals of this flywheel include the company's claim of being the "fastest mover in legaltech adoption" in a survey of legal drafting tools, indicating strong year-over-year engagement gains [Perplexity Sonar Pro].
The size of the win, should the enterprise land-and-expand scenario play out, can be contextualized by looking at comparable legaltech platforms. While no direct public comp exists, companies like DISCO (NYSE: LAW), which provides AI-powered legal document review for e-discovery, achieved a market capitalization of approximately $1.6 billion as of early 2025. Definely's focus on the pre-execution, proactive drafting phase, a daily workflow for millions of lawyers, arguably addresses a larger and more recurring addressable market within the legal services sector. A successful outcome could see Definely valued as a critical workflow platform, with a potential valuation reflecting its penetration into the daily habits of the global legal profession (scenario, not a forecast).
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Growth scenarios and market context are supported by company announcements and accelerator participation, but specific traction metrics for the flywheel are company-sourced.
Sources
PUBLIC
[Perplexity Sonar Pro] Definely - LegalTech for creating, drafting and reviewing contracts | https://www.definely.com/
[Legal Practice Intelligence] Definely - LegalTech for creating, drafting and reviewing contracts | https://www.definely.com/
[StartupHub.ai, 2025] Definely - LegalTech for creating, drafting and reviewing contracts | https://www.definely.com/
[TechCrunch, June 2025] Legal tech platform Definely raises $30M Series B to make contract reviewing more efficient | https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/12/legal-tech-platform-definely-raises-30m-series-b-to-make-contract-reviewing-more-efficient/
[TL Podcast] How a Visual Impairment Led to the Founding of a Contract Drafting Software Company (Feargus MacDaeid, Co-Founder of Definely) | https://www.tlpodcast.com/how-a-visual-impairment-led-to-the-founding-of-a-contract-drafting-software-legal-tech-company-feargus-macdaeid-co-founder-of-definely/
[Definely, 2023] Definely named in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 | https://www.definely.com/newsroom/deloitte-uk-fast-50-winner
[Legal IT Insider, 2023] Definely - LegalTech for creating, drafting and reviewing contracts | https://www.definely.com/
[Definely] Definely secures $7m in Series A funding to change how the world’s top lawyers access and understand contracts | https://www.definely.com/newsroom/definely-secures-7m-in-series-a-funding-to-change-how-the-worlds-top-lawyers-access-and-understand-contracts
[Definely] Definely launches agentic AI system to supercharge both accuracy and speed for lawyers | https://www.definely.com/newsroom/definely-launches-agentic-ai-system-to-supercharge-both-accuracy-and-speed-for-lawyers
[Definely] Definely welcomes seasoned legaltech operators with launch of Advisor Network | https://www.definely.com/newsroom/definely-welcomes-seasoned-legaltech-operators-with-launch-of-advisor-network
[Definely website] Create, Draft & Review Contracts | The Definely Suite | https://www.definely.com/solutions/the-definely-suite
[Nonbillable] Definely's 'first-of-its-kind' AI tool can catch consequential effects of contract edits | https://www.nonbillable.co.uk/news/definely-cascade
[Attorney at Work, 2025] Definely - LegalTech for creating, drafting and reviewing contracts | https://www.definely.com/
[Pulse2] Definely - LegalTech for creating, drafting and reviewing contracts | https://www.definely.com/
[The SaaS News] Definely - LegalTech for creating, drafting and reviewing contracts | https://www.definely.com/
Articles about Definely
- Definely's AI Add-In Lands on the Word Documents of Magic Circle Law Firms — The London legaltech startup, founded by a blind former Freshfields lawyer, secured a $30 million Series B to expand its contract drafting and proofreading suite.