California-founded start-up Theo Ai says it is creating the world’s most accurate legal prediction engine to forecast the outcome of legal disputes. Theo Ai is Legal IT Insider’s latest Start-up Corner entry, and here they give us an insight into the company and its impressive founders line up, strategy, challenges and achievements.
How would you describe your company to a friend?
Theo Ai is the smart assistant for sophisticated litigation teams. It uses AI to predict how likely a legal case is to settle and for how much. Instead of relying only on gut instinct or guesswork, lawyers can use Theo Ai to make more informed decisions, backed by data from past cases and legal experts. It helps legal teams figure out which cases to take and invest in and how to talk to clients about possible outcomes.
And to a techy?
Theo Ai is an AI-powered litigation intelligence platform that provides predictive analytics for legal settlements, tailored specifically for Big Law firms, General Counsels, and corporate legal teams. By combining firm-specific historical case data, proprietary data pipelines, and supervised learning with legal experts, Theo Ai delivers highly accurate, actionable insights into case outcomes and settlement ranges.
When were you founded?
Theo Ai was founded in 2024.
By who?
Theo Ai’s founding team consists of Patrick Ip, co-founder and CEO, and Tiago Luchini, co-founder and CTO. Ip is an ex-Googler and 3x CEO/co-founder of three different venture-backed startups. Luchini is a 5x founder across different verticals including legaltech, fintech, retail and biotech for companies across the globe.
Who are your key managers/senior execs?
Jay Mandal, chief product officer – Jay leads product and go-to-market strategy and drives research efforts supporting Theo’s legal generative AI model. A veteran at the intersection of AI, legal tech, and enterprise software, Jay founded a legaltech startup backed by Sequoia and Google Ventures that was eventually sold to Rocket Lawyer. He was head of M&A at Apple, working on deals for Steve Jobs. He also served as COO of SAP’s Data Analytics & AI business and held VP roles at SAP Ariba and SAP’s SMB ERP division, helping scale SaaS businesses to over $1B in revenue. Jay is a longtime Stanford guest lecturer and fellow, where he teaches AI, product strategy, and legal ethics, and a Fulbright Scholar with degrees from Stanford and Berkeley Law.
Jeff Christianson, legal advisor – Jeff is a seasoned legal and cybersecurity executive with deep expertise spanning litigation, regulatory compliance, product security, and corporate governance. Jeff has held senior roles including chief legal and information security officer and general counsel at leading tech companies including Raptor, F5, and Nintex. Known for his strategic judgment, operational acumen, and people-first leadership, Jeff brings decades of experience advising high-growth tech companies through complex legal and business challenges.
Sarah Johansson, head of legal product – Sarah brings a background litigation strategy, practical legal operations, and product development to lead the Theo Ai team to scale AI solutions for modern legal teams. She works hands-on with legal teams across the U.S. to uncover pain points to shape Theo Ai into a legaltech that understands how legal professionals operate in their day-to-day.
Who are your target clients?
Theo Ai was founded to help litigation teams more accurately predict a particular case outcome, based on historical data, predictive analytics, and AI insights.
Since launching in 2024, Theo Ai has tailored its engine for big law firms and general counsels to create more firm-specific prediction engines that leverage their unique case history and proprietary to provide actionable insights across a wider array of legal scenarios
What is your plan (growth strategy)?
Our vision is to bring predictive analytics and AI to the forefront of legal decision-making. While we started out by catering to litigation funders, the platform has evolved to be able to support litigators directly, helping to optimize risk assessment, client advisory, and resource allocation through scalable, data-driven infrastructure.
Key achievements?
- Secured $6.4MM in funding since launching in November 2024
- Partnership with Mustang Litigation Funding
- Expanding into new law verticals including big law and general counsel
Have there been any key changes in direction since you were founded?
We’re looking to be the first place legal teams come to understand the legal risk and potential settlement of lawsuits. In the same way Glassdoor and others are the go-to place for compensation benchmarking, we want to be that for legal settlements.
What are the key challenges in your market?
Settlement data is sealed, making it impossible for companies to do legal prediction. We’ve built up a unique research dataset with our partnership with Harvard University, Stanford Law and Caltech Professors and Legal advisors to build a first of its kind research dataset for legal settlement prediction. This has been backtested against litigation funders, and now big law and Fortune 500 Legal Teams.
Tell us something people don’t already know about the company?
It can be argued that legal technologies today increase the amount of litigation in the world. Our vision is to create a more efficient legal system by helping to accurately weigh the merits of legal cases. The outcome is a system where clients have a more objective understanding of their case and can better determine a sound strategy towards resolution.
To learn more about Theo Ai, visit their website here: Theo AI – Predict Your Next Case
See also:
Litigation outcome prediction startup Theo Ai raises $4.2m seed funding