Avvoka secures GBP £14m to scale AI legal drafting
Avvoka has raised GBP £14 million in growth funding in a round led by Valhalla Ventures, the investment firm set up by Preqin founder Mark O'Hare and Lindy O'Hare.
The deal is Valhalla Ventures' first announced investment since BlackRock agreed to acquire Preqin in 2025 for GBP £2.5 billion. For Avvoka, it is the company's first institutional round after nearly a decade of largely bootstrapped growth.
Founded in 2016, Avvoka sells a contract-drafting platform to law firms and in-house legal teams. It says it works with more than 20% of the Am Law 100. Named users include A&O Shearman, Fenwick, Fried Frank, and Ropes & Gray, and the company lists Warner Bros. Discovery among its corporate customers.
Avvoka was founded by former Magic Circle lawyers Eliot Benzecrit and David Howorth. It previously raised GBP £600,000 from Angel Investors.
Drafting focus
Avvoka positions its product as drafting infrastructure rather than a point tool. The approach turns a firm's precedents and drafting standards into reusable systems that can be supervised and updated over time.
The platform combines rules-based automation with large language model technology. It says its automation engine can automatically convert an existing legal document into a template by detecting variables, clauses, and conditions. It also applies guardrails designed to keep each draft aligned with a firm's standards.
The emphasis on governance and oversight reflects a wider shift in large law firms as generative AI moves from pilots into day-to-day workflows. Many firms have focused their early efforts on research, summarisation, and first drafts. Contract drafting at scale raises different operational questions, including how firms maintain consistency across teams, manage approvals and playbooks, and track change over time.
Avvoka argues that structured systems matter as volumes increase and clients demand faster turnaround. In that framing, AI is one component of a broader drafting process rather than a standalone solution.
Benzecrit pointed to rising volumes and shifting client expectations as key drivers. "AI has changed the pace of legal drafting. Client expectations have shifted, volumes are rising, and the old model of document-by-document automation no longer scales. What firms need now is drafting infrastructure - systems that embed structure, governance and human oversight alongside AI capability. That's how you scale without diluting quality. Avvoka exists to build that infrastructure. We help legal teams turn their knowledge into structured, supervised systems that increase output while protecting their edge," he said.
Backer profile
Valhalla Ventures is led by Mark and Lindy O'Hare. Mark O'Hare founded Preqin in 2003 and grew it into a data and intelligence provider for alternative assets markets. BlackRock agreed to buy Preqin for GBP £2.5 billion in 2025.
O'Hare said adoption of AI in legal work will hinge on systems and processes, not model performance alone.
"AI is changing how legal work is done, but it won't replace the need for robust systems. Avvoka's attraction is their recognition that drafting is not a tool problem -- it is an infrastructure problem. Firms that want to scale without diluting their expertise will need platforms built with that reality in mind," he said.
US expansion
Avvoka said the funding will be used to expand its US presence and develop the product for high-volume, high-variation drafting work. The company has already built a customer base among large US law firms, based on the Am Law 100 share it reports.
Howorth linked the round to that next phase and cited O'Hare's experience scaling a platform business internationally.
"We're delighted to work with Mark, who has known the business for years and believes in our approach and long-term vision. Mark's experience of building Preqin into a global platform made Valhalla the perfect fit for our next stage. This capital enables us to accelerate our US expansion and deepen the platform for high-volume, high-variation work while staying true to the principles that got us here: governance, control and respect for institutional knowledge," Howorth said.
The investment comes amid rising competitive pressure in legal technology, as specialist vendors and general-purpose AI providers compete for enterprise customers. Large firms and corporate legal teams have also increased scrutiny of risk controls, auditability, and the handling of confidential information. Vendors emphasising workflow controls and standardisation have sought to differentiate themselves from tools focused on ad hoc drafting or chat-based assistance.
Avvoka said it plans to extend its platform for more complex drafting scenarios and broaden its US footprint as demand grows for repeatable drafting processes with clearer governance and oversight.