Barcelona adds a new member to its list of unicorns. The legal platform vLex, founded in 2000 in the Catalan capital by brothers Lluís and Àngel Faus, has just entered this coveted category, after the Canadian company Clio bought it for about 850 million euros —one billion dollars— from the British asset manager Oakley Capital.
The Barcelona firm has its AI engine as its emblem, Vincent, which has a database of more than one billion legal documents, with which it has reached law firms around the world. The company, in which Oakley Capital invested in 2022, expanded its reach in the United States after the acquisition of Fastcase in 2023, which allowed it to double its revenue.
Clio, which serves more than 200,000 professionals in 130 countries through billing, case management, and automation tools, thus incorporates vLex's AI, in an operation that aims to redefine legal practice, according to Lluís Faus: "It marks the beginning of a transformative era in the legal sector, unprecedented," according to the CEO and co-founder of vLex.
"Clio and vLex are in a privileged position to transform the dynamics of legal work and redefine the trajectory of the profession," Faus added, while Clio's CEO and Director, Jack Newton, agreed that the operation marks "a decisive moment for Clio and for the legal profession in general."
"It lays the groundwork for an AI-driven future with agents and marks the establishment of a new category in the industry, one that will enable legal professionals to serve clients with unprecedented insight and precision," Newton added.
With the operation, which is pending closure before the end of the year after the usual regulatory approvals, vLex is placed at the epicenter of legaltech worldwide. With this acquisition, the company marks a milestone in its trajectory, which started 25 years ago in the Catalan capital; five years later it made the leap to Latin America with its first international offices, and since then it has been expanding globally, also with acquisitions, such as that of Fastcase and the previous one of Justis Publishing, in order to position itself as a benchmark in the sector in the main markets of the world, something that is now boosted with this operation.