A $5.6 billion valuation and rapid global expansion—this AI European-scaler even threw in a free Jude Law

Graham Norton on a horse (Revolut). Gordon Ramsay swearing on the phone (Poly AI). Jude Law smoldering in an ironic kind of way (Legora). AI may be a new technology, but gaining brand recognition in a crowded market still relies on that most old-fashioned of techniques—star-pulling power. Three-year-old Legora is one of Europe’s fastest-growing AI businesses. It works in the famously conservative legal sector (think whiskery judges partial to a glass of claret at lunchtime). Growth is stellar in a sector ripe for disruption. Backers include NVentures, Nvidia’s corporate VC fund, and leading legal firm, Bird & Bird, which specializes in the tech sector. Its most recent $550 million Series D fundraise valued the business at $5.6 billion. Not bad for a bunch of self-confessed “engineers and hackers” from Sweden. Outside the world of lawyers, few would have heard of Legora until one of the cheesiest marketing ideas in history (“We’re a legal business, how about getting Jude Law to talk about us?”) became an advertising sensation. For weeks across the U.S. and Europe, Jude Law in a crisp white shirt and sharp grey suit was appearing on social media feeds and staring down from digital billboards from New York to London. Name recognition soared. “Somebody internally said, given that we’re building AI-powered law, what if we just got Jude Law to be AI powered?” Max Junestrand, the CEO and co-founder of Legora told me. “And maybe one or two bottles of wine later, we ended up committing to the idea.” Max Junestrand, the CEO and co-founder of LegoraLegora Months of to-ing and fro-ing with his agent later (Law was concerned that Legora might be a here-today-gone-tomorrow type of business) and the project was agreed. “Nagging is an underappreciated form of negotiation,” Junestrand said of Legora’s efforts to engage a film star more used to playing Vladimir Putin and Albus Dumbledore. “It was clear to us that AI—and the intersection between AI and law—was an interesting space, but