Contract intelligence software startup ThoughtRiver has received its highest level of funding yet from Ascential’s chief executive Duncan Painter, who has been appointed as a key advisor to the board.
Ascential (formerly Top Right Group) is a business-to-business media company that runs Cannes Lions festival and owns magazines including Retail Week, Nursing Times and Construction News.
Painter has been CEO since 2011, before which he was managing director of Sky. The undisclosed sum follows investment in April from Taylor Vinters, where ThoughtRiver founder and CEO Tim Pullan (pictured on the home page) is still a partner and counts Top Right Group among his clients. There will be a further funding round in mid-Autumn.
Pullan told Legal IT Insider: “Duncan’s investment is great because he has really relevant experience and a great track record when it comes to generating value.”
ThoughtRiver’s contract intelligence software applies a contract risk evaluation tool that scans and interprets information from written contracts used in commercial risk assessments and produces visualisations of the potential risks and other issues. These can include the governing law and jurisdiction, which will appear on a dashboard, with the risk determined by a company’s own risk appetite in different areas, allowing it to apportion resource more accurately. ThoughtRiver will launch a NDA-only automated review service from the end of September.
The London-based company was recently recognised by the FT Innovation Awards as a result of its work with global media group Dentsu Aegis Network and while still in beta testing is currently working with an as yet undisclosed multi-national software company.
ThoughtRiver’s team includes chief technology officer Richard Moss, a former CTO at Sky IQ, and technology and strategy adviser John Sharp, currently CEO of Hatcher. Winning the prize for our favourite team photo on ThoughtRiver’s website is senior developer Bello Abubakar, who is also CEO and founder of GummyBearLabs.
This article first appeared in Legal IT Insider’s July/August newsletter.
See also: Taylor Vinters partners with contract intelligence startup ThoughtRiver