Legal-tech startup SpotDraft raises $8 Mn in Series B extension

SpotDraft, a legal-tech and enterprise CLM startup, has raised $8 million from Qualcomm Ventures as a Series B extension, reinforcing investor interest in privacy-first legal AI that can run directly on user devices. This development is also a timely signal for conversations across the global enterprise AI ecosystem that the ai world organisation continues to convene through the ai world summit and other ai world organisation events, including ai conferences by ai world across regions.

$8M extension and what it signals

The Series B extension brings Qualcomm Ventures into SpotDraft’s journey at a moment when regulated enterprises are actively looking for AI tools that reduce data exposure without slowing legal workflows. SpotDraft’s fresh $8 million comes after its prior Series B round in February 2025, which was reported as $54 million by Entrackr and as $56 million by TechCrunch, highlighting slight reporting differences while still pointing to a large late-stage raise last year. Before that, the company raised $26 million in a Series A round in March 2023, indicating steady, milestone-driven capital formation as its enterprise footprint expanded.

In practical terms, the money is earmarked to deepen product and AI capabilities while pushing further enterprise adoption across the Americas, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa), and India. Qualcomm’s participation is also positioned as more than a cheque, because the relationship ties into hardware-optimised deployment for on-device enterprise workflows—an angle that has become increasingly important as “AI PC” capabilities mature. For leaders tracking where enterprise AI is heading, this kind of round is less about “another SaaS raise” and more about an architectural bet: legal AI that keeps sensitive documents close to the user, rather than routing them into external cloud models by default.

At the ai world organisation, we routinely see this theme emerge across summit agendas and community discussions: enterprises want AI benefits, but they also want control, auditability, and predictable risk boundaries—especially for contracts, pricing, IP, and privileged legal material. That is exactly why the ai world summit and broader ai world organisation events are increasingly shaped around governance, security, and real-world deployment patterns, not just model capabilities, and why “ai world summit 2025 / 2026” conversations are naturally moving toward operational AI design choices like on-device inference.

Privacy-first CLM and the on-device AI approach

SpotDraft was founded by Shashank Bijapur and Madhav Bhagat (and is also reported by Inc42 as being founded alongside Rohith Salim), and it operates an AI-powered contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform geared toward enterprise contracting needs. The company frames its differentiation around privacy-first deployment, with AI tooling designed to keep sensitive legal data on-device rather than sending documents to external cloud models. This is a direct response to the friction enterprises face when legal teams are asked to upload counterparty contracts and negotiation history into systems that might be processed by third-party LLM services or routed outside internal governance boundaries.

TechCrunch reports that SpotDraft’s on-device direction is implemented through its AI tool “VerifAI,” which is positioned to work inside the tools legal teams already use, including Microsoft Word, rather than forcing lawyers into an unfamiliar workflow. Importantly, the on-device capability is described as extending beyond summarisation into workflow-grade tasks like contract review, risk scoring, and redlining, with connectivity still required for certain functions like login, licensing, and collaboration. Business Wire similarly notes that core VerifAI functions run on-device (including elements such as embeddings, clause extraction, risk scoring, and edits), while some operations may still need the internet for account and sharing requirements.

This “hybrid by design” pattern—critical document intelligence performed locally, orchestration and analytics handled through cloud layers where appropriate—has started to look like the emerging blueprint for sensitive enterprise AI. In fact, Inc42 attributes a clear articulation of this split to Bhagat, describing how core understanding and checks run locally while orchestration and large-scale analytics remain cloud-driven, optimised for Qualcomm’s Hexagon NPU for low-latency private AI experiences. From a market lens, SpotDraft is essentially arguing that legal is a proving ground for privacy-centric enterprise AI, where the constraints are real, the stakes are high, and the buyer urgency is strong.

For the ai world organisation audience—founders, enterprise leaders, policy stakeholders, and practitioners—this is exactly the type of real deployment story that fits naturally into ai conferences by ai world: not “AI in theory,” but AI operating under constraints (compliance, data residency, internal security reviews) across multiple regions. It also provides a strong case study for the ai world summit format, which The AI World Organisation positions as a global convening of AI pioneers, educators, policymakers, and industry leaders.

Qualcomm tie-up and Snapdragon Summit 2025 validation

One of the most notable pieces of this announcement is not only the investor name, but the demonstration context that came with it. SpotDraft showcased its on-device contract review at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit 2025, where its AI models ran locally on Snapdragon X Elite laptops without cloud connectivity, presenting a concrete example of “AI PC” legal workflows rather than a slide-deck promise. TechCrunch adds that the VerifAI workflow was demonstrated end-to-end on Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptops, executing contract review and edits offline while keeping the document on the local machine, again with some features still requiring connectivity for login/licensing/collaboration. Business Wire also frames this as validation of privacy-first AI for enterprise legal operations, built to run directly on Qualcomm hardware.

This matters because enterprise legal teams are not just evaluating model quality; they are evaluating risk. When a legal department sees a credible path to “review, score, and redline contracts without uploading them to an external cloud model,” procurement and security teams can move faster because the data-flow map becomes simpler and easier to defend internally. It also changes the enterprise calculus around latency and user experience, because if the system performs locally, it can reduce dependency on network conditions and bring response times closer to the pace at which lawyers actually work through documents.

TechCrunch reports that SpotDraft expects this on-device workflow to expand more broadly as compatible AI PC hardware becomes more widely available, and it positions Qualcomm’s involvement as extending into joint development and go-to-market for on-device deployments. From an industry viewpoint, that combination—capital + distribution alignment + hardware optimisation—can become a meaningful advantage, especially in categories where incumbents are still architected around cloud-first processing. These are precisely the types of partnerships and “AI-to-business” pathways that the ai world organisation aims to spotlight through ai world organisation events and the ai world summit ecosystem, where leaders want to see what actually ships and scales.

Growth metrics, customers, and financial performance

SpotDraft reports strong operating momentum across customer acquisition and usage. Entrackr states the company has seen 100% year-on-year customer growth, with contract volumes up 173% year-on-year, nearly 50,000 monthly active users, and more than one million contracts processed annually. Inc42 echoes similar scale metrics, noting almost 50,000 monthly active users, more than one million contracts annually, 100% YoY growth in customer acquisitions, and 173% YoY growth in contract volumes. TechCrunch adds additional adoption context, reporting that SpotDraft has reached more than 700 customers (up from around 400 the prior year), while also reiterating the one million contracts processed annually, 173% contract volume growth, and roughly 50,000 monthly active users.

The customer roster named across reports includes Apollo.io, Panasonic, Zeplin, and Whatfix, suggesting the product is gaining traction with companies that have fast-moving commercial contracting needs and multi-stakeholder approval workflows. On the competitive front, Entrackr places SpotDraft in a crowded legaltech field alongside names such as Legistify, Leegality, Sirion, and Vakilsearch, reflecting a market where buyers increasingly expect automation and AI assistance across contract drafting, review, signing, and repository intelligence. Inc42 also positions the broader trend as an outcome of advances in AI creating a wave of legal tech startups helping enterprises automate contract management, drafting, filings, and briefs, with investors actively backing such platforms for growth opportunities.

Financially, Entrackr reports that SpotDraft’s revenue from operations grew threefold in FY24 to Rs 60 crore from Rs 20 crore in FY23, while losses remained flat at Rs 68 crore, and it notes that FY25 results could not be independently verified. TechCrunch does not provide the same revenue figures, but it reports valuation and growth signals, stating the extension values SpotDraft at around $380 million—nearly double its prior post-money valuation of about $190 million after the February 2025 Series B—and it also notes the company’s expectations around revenue growth rates while not disclosing specific revenue numbers. Inc42, meanwhile, states that SpotDraft has raised $92 million since inception and mentions a prior valuation reference of $132 million (as per its own earlier reporting), illustrating how different datasets and timeframes can produce different valuation snapshots.

For enterprise buyers, these numbers together tell a coherent story: this is a product that is not only experimenting with AI, but also scaling classic SaaS adoption metrics (users, contract throughput, customer count) while making a strategic move toward privacy-centric AI deployment. For founders and operators, it also underlines a common reality of high-growth enterprise software—rapid scale often coexists with meaningful losses, especially when companies invest in product, security, compliance readiness, and global go-to-market. These themes—scaling responsibly, proving ROI, and navigating AI governance—are exactly the kind of practical, operator-led learning loops that the ai world organisation tries to capture through the ai world summit and broader ai conferences by ai world.

Why this round matters for enterprise AI and the AI World Summit narrative

SpotDraft’s approach sits at the intersection of several forces reshaping enterprise AI adoption: regulatory scrutiny, internal security review cycles, data residency expectations, and end-user demand for AI that fits into existing workflows. TechCrunch highlights that privacy, security, and data governance concerns continue to slow adoption for sensitive workflows, especially in legal, which is why architectures that keep core contract intelligence on-device are becoming attractive. Business Wire also frames the market signal as accelerating demand for secure, high-performance legal AI that can run directly on-device.

From the lens of the ai world organisation, this is an ideal “real deployment” case study for ai world organisation events because it demonstrates a specific, testable answer to a hard enterprise question: how do we use advanced AI on sensitive documents without losing governance control. The AI World Organisation describes its mission around fostering innovation and collaboration at the intersection of AI and business and notes that it organizes summits, workshops, and community events worldwide—exactly the kind of environment where enterprise legal AI and privacy-first deployment strategies become actionable discussion topics. The AI World Organisation also positions the ai world summit as a premier gathering of AI pioneers, policymakers, and industry leaders, which fits the cross-functional nature of legal AI adoption (legal, IT, security, compliance, procurement, and business owners all need alignment).

As we look toward ai world summit 2025 and the next wave of 2026 discussions, the most valuable enterprise AI stories will likely be the ones that show repeatable deployment patterns: where the model runs, how data is handled, what is logged, what can be audited, how human review is preserved, and how organisations reduce risk while still gaining speed. SpotDraft’s Snapdragon Summit 2025 demonstration provides a concrete anchor for that conversation—on-device legal AI is no longer only a theoretical “privacy-friendly option,” but something that can be shown running offline on commercial hardware. That kind of proof point tends to accelerate both buyer confidence and the broader ecosystem of partners, from hardware vendors to enterprise IT leaders, making it a relevant storyline across ai conferences by ai world and the ai world summit agenda cycles.