What $50m means for Summize

Over the last few years, we’ve made some big bets: moving into the US, building the best  Contract Lifecyle Management solution that could scale with legal teams and their businesses, and expanding to support customers globally.  A $50million Series B investment from Maven Capital Partners, YFM Equity, Kennet Partners and Federated Hermes investment is a signal that those bets paid off.

To understand what that means in practice – for our product, our customers and the people building Summize – we spoke to our Senior Leadership Team about the $50m investment announcement.

From taking bets to proving they worked

For our Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder Tom Dunlop, the significance of this round isn’t just the number, but what it represents.

“This investment is a milestone because so many things have come together at once – the US expansion working, our CLM software proven at scale and the business metrics showing we can grow repeatedly.”

Earlier rounds of funding unlocked very specific steps: entering a new market, taking a risk on a new location or funding specific projects, but this round reflects those foundations Summize has built, funding scale rather than experimentation.

“We’re not using this to try something out. It’s fuel on the fire – investing more in the people, products and markets we already know work.”

Our Chief Technology Officer Rich Somerfield sees that same shift from a different angle. Having been part of the journey for six years, Rich sees this round as acknowledgement of the work already done, as well as marking the next chapter.

“There were multiple investors interested in being involved, which shows all the hard work that we’ve put in so far has been recognized. It’s a chance to continue growing the team and keep pushing forward.”

Pioneering the most innovative CLM

For our Chief Development Officer David Smith, the impact of the investment shows up most clearly in how our R&D teams work.  

The investment gives us room to formalize processes where needed, add structure to the R&D teams and build capacity in the team, all without slowing down delivery or innovation.

“It allows us to create space to try new things that we wouldn’t previously have been able to.”

In other words, we’ll be shipping more innovative CLM features faster and scaling our AI infrastructure to support the growth in our customer base.  

Growing into a truly global business

Some of the changes driven by this investment are already visible.

Our Chief Marketing Officer Laura Proctor talks about how different the business feels compared to even a short time ago.

“You can see it in very tangible ways – new offices, a growing team. It feels like a more grown-up, sophisticated business.

Summize now operates across Manchester, Boston and San Diego – and not just for sales, either.

“We’ve got pretty much every area of the business represented across those locations now. It genuinely is now a global company.”

From a Go-To-Market perspective, that global footprint matters. It means closer proximity to our customers, stronger regional understanding and the ability to properly support in-house legal teams wherever they’re based.

“We know where we’re going. We have a strong vision and this investment gives us the fuel to execute on the plans we’ve been building towards.”

Scaling people and processes hand-in-hand

Our Chief Financial Officer, Rachel Cunliffe, sees this investment as pivotal because of both the size and what it unlocks next.

“We’ve grown 100% year on year for the last five years. This investment allows us to implement our vision and move faster on where we want to be over the next three to five years.”

Having been through similar growth phases before, she recognizes the moment.

“There’s a point where you know the formula works. This feels like that.”

A large part of the focus now is on foundations – building teams, scaling operations and supporting expansion in the US by replicating strong UK functions overseas.

“The investment allows us to invest everywhere across the business – in our CLM product, go-to-market, people – and put the right foundations in place.”

What this means going forward

With the foundations in place, the focus goes to execution: continuing innovation in our CLM product to remain the vendor of choice for mid-market companies, supporting global customers at scale and hiring and developing the best talent for the next phase of Summize.