Robin AI

Robin AI is a legal artificial intelligence company founded in London in 2019 by Richard Robinson, a former Clifford Chance lawyer, and James Clough, a machine learning researcher. It built contract review and drafting software delivered largely through a Microsoft Word add-in, backed by venture investors including Temasek. The business was substantially dismantled across late 2025 and early 2026.

Robin AI raised a 26 million dollar Series B led by Temasek in January 2024 and pushed a combined software and managed review model into corporate legal teams. A planned 50 million dollar round failed to close in October 2025, prompting deep layoffs; in December 2025 the managed legal services team and its clients moved to rival provider Scissero, and in January 2026 Microsoft hired a large part of the engineering group to work on Word for lawyers, stating that it had no plans to acquire the company itself.

Robin AI at a glance:

• Founded: 2019 in London by Richard Robinson, previously a lawyer at Clifford Chance and Boies Schiller Flexner, and machine learning researcher James Clough.
• Headquarters: London, England, with a second office in New York; engineering staff at both sites moved across to Microsoft in January 2026.
• Ownership: Privately held and venture-backed, with investors including Temasek, after a planned funding round collapsed in October 2025.
• Legal Technology Portfolio: Robin, a contract review, drafting and search tool for in-house legal teams, delivered mainly as an add-in for Microsoft Word.
• Market Focus: Mid-market and enterprise in-house legal teams in the United Kingdom and United States, with financial services and insurance prominent.

What legal teams should know: The record shows a funding round that failed to close in October 2025, the sale of the managed contract review business to Scissero in December 2025, and Microsoft hiring much of the engineering team in January 2026 without acquiring the company. The product site remains live, so legal teams should confirm corporate status, support arrangements and data custody before contracting.