Antoine Kanaan (left) and Abbas Qabalan (right), the two co-founders of HAQQ Legal AI. (Credit: Photo provided by the company)
The Lebanese startup HAQQ Legal AI, which specializes in developing an artificial intelligence (AI) based operating system, announced today that it has raised $3 million to "accelerate the development and global deployment of its legal AI systems and law firm management solutions."
The investment was led by Sowlutions Ventures, with participation from Hitek Ventures, Corona Legal, IM Fndng, Highworth, Razor Capital, Symax, and Hamady Trust.
Launched in September 2023 by Antoine Kanaan and Abbas Qabalan, HAQQ Legal AI offers a digital platform that acts as an AI lawyer, "capable of performing a wide range of legal tasks traditionally carried out by human lawyers quickly, consistently, and efficiently," as well as serving as a "law firm management system," according to the company statement.
Initially conceived as a digital platform to connect clients with an online network of lawyers, the startup's co-founders decided to change their model when they realized the sector faces several obstacles that complicate legal work, including reliance on fragmented tools and slow systems and processes.
International expansion
"With HAQQ Legal AI, we want to make legal intelligence accessible to all and reduce disparities in access to appropriate legal advice around the world," Kanaan, CEO of the startup, told L’Orient-Le Jour.
"Despite the vast size of the legal industry, it remains among the least digitized sectors in the world, with nearly five billion people affected by these disparities," he added.
But beyond individuals, for whom the startup offers its service for free, HAQQ Legal AI targets all stakeholders in the legal system, including corporate legal teams, law firms, bar associations, courts, and public institutions, to whom it offers more advanced and specific services in exchange for subscriptions.
"Rather than offering a generic legal AI platform," the startup does so "contextually," providing digital twins (virtual equivalents of an object or process) to each firm, according to its statement.
"The system replicates the way each organization thinks, works, and makes decisions, producing results aligned with its internal data, governance requirements, and workflows," it adds.
For his part, Qabalan emphasizes in the same statement that "HAQQ Legal AI is not designed to replace human judgment [in the sector], but to enhance it. We use AI to relieve lawyers of repetitive and tedious tasks so they can dedicate more time to what truly matters: thinking clearly, making better decisions, advocating for their clients, and building genuine human relationships."
According to him, the goal is to provide lawyers with "better tools so they can be more present, more strategic, and more human in their legal practice. We use AI to eliminate friction, enabling lawyers to focus more on what only they truly know how to do."
To comply with all international regulations, the HAQQ Legal AI team focuses on integrating "all existing legal systems, regardless of language, and keeping them updated daily," explains Kanaan.
This now allows their platform to be adopted around the world, including in the United States, Brazil, Russia, India, China, Europe, and the Gulf countries.
"Our technology is already adopted by more than 7,000 private and public entities across 80 countries," he said. He intends to continue growing this number through new fundraising.
This article was translated from L'Orient-Le Jour.
