Kira Systems’ first non-founder executive, Steve Obenski, is leaving the company, which was acquired in August by Litera. Obenski is Kira’s chief strategy officer and has been at the heart of its rapid growth.
In an email message called ‘Moving on’ sent on 1 September to Legal IT Insider among others, Obenski said:
“Today was my last day at Kira Systems. The company has been acquired by Litera in a transaction backed by Hg Capital. In addition, an independent spinout, Zuva, will commercialize the company’s AI technology in new products for the corporate market.I am taking this opportunity to depart and I will take a bit of a break before embarking something new. It has been an enormous pleasure working with all of you: the phenomenal team at Kira/Zuva, our key customers and partners, and innumerable friends. Thank you for being a part of this journey.”
While Kira founder Noah Waisberg is continuing as adviser to Kira, the majority of his time will be spent as CEO of Zuva. Kira’s co-founder and CTO Dr Alexander Hudek is a strategic advisor and board director to Zuva.
Obenski said:
“I am a long-time admirer of the Litera team and what they are building, and excited for the prospect that the combination will bring even more adoption of Kira as the standard for contract review. Prior to the split, I was working closely with the Zuva spin-off team and on their new product launch which will be forthcoming very soon. I truly believe it will be a game changer. I will be cheering on both teams from the sidelines!”
You can read the full story about Litera’s acquisition of Kira and the plans for Zuva here: Litera acquires the lion’s share of Kira Systems