Bench IQ, a Toronto-based legaltech startup, has raised $7.3 million CAD ($5.3M USD) in seed funding to expand its AI-powered platform that analyzes judicial rulings for litigation teams.
The round, which included $1M USD in debt, was led by Inovia Capital and Battery Ventures, with participation from CIBC Innovation Banking, MVP Ventures, Maple VC, and Haystack VC.
Founded by Jimoh Ovbiagele (CEO), Jeffrey Gettleman, and Maxim Isakov, Bench IQ compiles a proprietary dataset of rulings — including many that don’t produce written opinions — to reveal patterns in judges’ decision-making. Ovbiagele says these insights are not available in commercially deployed LLMs such as GPT or Gemini.
Market traction and expansion
Bench IQ’s platform is already used by four of the top five AmLaw 200 firms, though clients remain undisclosed. The startup currently analyzes data from US federal judges, with plans to expand to US state and Canadian judges as part of a global growth strategy.
The fresh funding will be used to enhance AI capabilities, grow the eight-person team, and broaden product coverage.
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From Ross to Bench IQ
Ovbiagele and Isakov previously co-founded Ross Intelligence, a Y Combinator-backed legal AI startup that shut down in 2020 amid a copyright lawsuit with Thomson Reuters over its use of Westlaw data. That case is still under appeal, with major implications for fair use in AI training.
Reflecting on the experience, Ovbiagele said:
“Startups shouldn’t take on monopolies head-on. Build strength in adjacent markets, then challenge from a position of power.”
With Bench IQ, the team is positioning itself as part of a new wave of AI-driven legaltech platforms, alongside companies like Clio and Harvey, aimed at automating legal workflows while addressing industry concerns around accuracy, privacy, and ethics.
