Arceus has brought its total funding to $17 million as founder Liu builds a legal business combining attorneys and contract-review software. The company announced new funding led by Greycroft on Thursday, with Craft Ventures and South Park Commons participating.
The startup wants corporate legal work completed through a service rather than another software platform. Its lawyers review contracts after a virtual agent gathers information and suggests changes.
Arceus Combines Software With Attorney Review
According to Business Insider’s funding report, Arceus lets employees submit contracts directly from Slack. They do not need to enter another platform to begin a review.
The virtual agent gathers context from Salesforce, HubSpot and past agreements. It then proposes changes and routes the matter to one of the firm’s attorneys for final review.
Arceus says it can reduce a standard agreement’s review time from days or weeks to a few hours. The company says a review is free if it takes more than eight hours.
Those commitments describe the company’s service model. The reported workflow still includes an attorney’s final review after the software has gathered context and suggested revisions.
For related coverage of legal services for entrepreneurs, Breaking 9 to 5 reported on Concierra Legal’s founder counsel.
A Founder Reinvests After Selling Vultron
Before starting Arceus, Liu held technology roles at Robinhood and Anduril. Liu later founded Vultron, which built software for defense contractors.
Earlier this year, Liu sold Vultron to govtech company pWin. Business Insider reported that pWin took the customer base while Liu retained the cash.
Liu is recycling that money into Arceus. The new business follows a model similar to Crosby, which builds software for its own lawyers.
Crosby was most recently valued at $400 million, according to the report. Its founder, Ryan Daniels, previously worked as a fractional general counsel.
Another company in the field, Vector Legal, was founded by Mitch Duncombe, previously a lawyer at Y Combinator. Business Insider described their software as reflecting years spent doing legal work.
Arceus Pursues Faster Customer Responses
Liu says Arceus was built more like a startup than a law firm. Engineers joined before the first lawyer, and employees work together in the office six days a week.
The founder wants every customer request acknowledged within five minutes. Liu said Arceus has not yet reached that goal.
“You’re not pinging a lawyer because you just want to chat,” Liu said. “You’re nervous about something, you’re questioning something, and you want to feel like someone’s there.”
The software approach connects with broader coverage of AI coding and speed. Another related business-software development is Meta’s small business agent.
Liu sees competition coming from traditional law firms, in-house legal teams and vendors selling software to corporate lawyers. The founder says customers may eventually need fewer internal lawyers after hiring Arceus.
That remains Liu’s ambition as legal departments work out where AI belongs. For now, Arceus is pursuing a faster contract-review service with attorneys handling the final review.