PERSUIT, a technology firm known for its expertise in managing outside counsel for corporate legal departments, has announced its acquisition of Apperio, a notable platform for spend management in the corporate legal sector. This development coincides with the commencement of the CLOC Global Legal Institute conference, a key gathering for legal operations professionals, currently taking place in Las Vegas.
The acquisition aims to enhance PERSUIT’s platform by integrating Apperio’s capabilities. This merger is anticipated to provide comprehensive management of legal workflows from initial RFPs to spend analysis, thus transforming legal operations into a more strategically focused role within business management. More details on this acquisition can be explored in the formal announcement provided by PERSUIT.
PERSUIT, founded in 2016 and headquartered in New York, has been at the forefront of streamlining the engagement and management process of law firms for in-house legal departments. The company’s innovative platform offers a competitive and transparent RFP process, complemented by tools geared towards benchmarking, rate negotiation, and data analysis. In a significant development two years ago, PERSUIT introduced an AI-powered tool aimed at providing deeper insights into law firm proposals (more details).
For its part, Apperio, established in London in 2013, is celebrated for offering a single-dashboard view of legal spending to in-house counsel. This platform aggregates and analyzes current and historical legal spending while also streamlining the invoice approval process. Apperio has been actively expanding into the U.S. market, as highlighted by their major drive in 2020 (see expansion plans), followed by a $7 million growth round in 2023 to further bolster their U.S. presence (see funding announcement).
Jim Delkousis, CEO of PERSUIT, notes the acquisition’s potential to enhance every facet of the outside counsel workflow with increased intelligence, emphasizing the significance of converting legal spend into actionable performance metrics. This strategic step aligns with PERSUIT’s wider goal of developing an end-to-end platform for smarter legal decision-making, confirmed by their ongoing engagement with 97% of global 200 law firms and the management of over 10,000 legal matters amounting to $17 billion in proposals.
Both Delkousis and Dominic Aelberry, the current CEO of Apperio, have expressed confidence in the combined potential of both companies to equip legal teams with the data necessary for effective spend management and value maximization. The deal reflects PERSUIT’s ongoing commitment to financial and operational enhancement in the legal landscape, as it continues to push forward after a successful $20 million Series A funding round in 2021 (read more).