In this edition of Localogy’s Local Radar, we examine newly funded companies Definely, Toma & Blackbird Labs.
1. Definely
Legal tech has the distinct characteristics of being specialized yet TAM-rich. Though the software is built to handle the nuanced operational needs of lawyers and law firms, it’s a big enough market where focused doesn’t mean niche. This was evident in our coverage earlier this week around Clio, and its new integration with Scorpion (which also focuses on the legal vertical). All the above is one of the founding principles for Definely, which recently raised a $30 million Series B round from a mix of European and North American investors. This follows its $7 million Series A raise last May. The company focuses on a specific but foundational part of the legal process: contract review. Utilizing AI (of course), its software automates and streamlines the traditionally-tedious process. This takes form in a productivity suite including a draft feature, quality review, and other widgets that do things like launching case-law reference material without losing their place in the document. The software’s AI capabilities also happen on agentic levels, including task prompts that can activate an AI agent to synthesize and complete several tasks given a specified goal. That last part makes this particularly scary for an oft-cited occupation at risk of AI displacement: paralegals. Definely will use its fresh funding to expand from the U.K. to the U.S. – where it derives 30 percent of its revenue.
2. Toma
Another vertical that is specialized yet isn’t “niche” is autos. Software that helps auto dealers operate and market themselves is a cornerstone of SMB Saas. Toma is joining that competitive fray with a platform that helps local dealers better receive, process, and optimize incoming leads. And the company recently raised a $17 million Series A round from A16Z and others. It has specifically developed an AI voice agent that’s already in use at more than 100 dealerships. It can do things like help customers schedule service appointments, answer sales questions, and other things that come up. The software is trained by listening to weeks of service calls at a given dealership. That training process improves the overall AI models while tapping into nuances or specializations at a given dealer (brands, market segments, etc.). The market need for the product was inspired by the dirty little secret that auto dealers only answer a portion of incoming calls. In fact, Toma developed an AI agent to call every car dealership in America several times to discover that calls were only answered 45 percent of the time.
3. Blackbird Labs
The third nuanced but large-market vertical we’ll cover today is restaurants. Blackbird Labs has raised $50 million for a new restaurant loyalty platform. The payments and loyalty software is used by 1,000 restaurants and takes some of the friction out of transactions. Using a blockchain-based system, it has developed a transaction protocol built Coinbase. Restaurant diners can use it to pay for meals via Blackbird’s app, as well as to redeem loyalty points. Among other things, this helps restaurants attract more customers while avoiding typical credit-card processing fees. Its latest funding round is led by Spark Capital with participation also from Coinbase Ventures, Amex Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz. This follows its $24 million Series A in 2023 and represents a cumulative total of $85 million in lifetime funding. It will use its latest cash infusion to launch a cross-restaurant “points” service called Blackbird Club; and to expand into new markets outside of its current stomping grounds in New York, San Francisco, and Charleston.
