Clio to acquire Spanish-American legaltech vLex for $1 billion USD

Burnaby, BC-based Clio has signed a definitive agreement for its most significant acquisition to date: Miami-based, Barcelona-founded legaltech company vLex for $1-billion USD ($1.37-billion CAD) in a cash-and-stock transaction.

Newton told BetaKit earlier this year that Clio was in a good position to be “the acquirer of choice in legaltech.”

Clio said the acquisition will expand its global footprint and unlock “unprecedented agentic AI capabilities.” vLex claims to offer the world’s largest legal and regulatory database, combined with an AI-powered search engine and assistant, named Vincent, in one platform. Vincent helps legal professionals quickly find and extract key information from legal documents.

vLex claims it serves over 2.8 million users across 100 countries, with more than one billion searchable legal documents at their disposal.

vLex is currently owned by Oakley Capital, a publicly traded pan-European private equity investor based in London, United Kingdom, through its Origin Fund. According to Oakley, Origin is partially reinvesting in the combined business alongside vLex’s founders “in order to benefit from expected future growth.” Clio declined to disclose further financial details, including vLex’s profitability.

Oakley also claimed that vLex serves the majority of the Am Law 100, a ranking of the largest law firms in America.

A Clio spokesperson confirmed to BetaKit that acquiring vLex will mark its largest acquisition to date, dethroning its 2021 acquisition of Lawyaw for an undisclosed sum in the mid-eight-figure range. The spokesperson added that vLex has over 350 employees across Miami, Barcelona, London, Bogotá, and remote locations, and that the companies are working on a “thoughtful integration plan.”

“We don’t expect to have to streamline operations,” the spokesperson said over email.

The Clio spokesperson added that the acquisition will fast-track the company’s AI capabilities. Clio CEO Jack Newton called the acquisition a “watershed moment” for the company and the legal profession.

“By bringing together the business and practice of law in a unified platform, we’re revolutionizing every aspect of legal work,” Newton said in a statement. “This sets the stage for a future powered by agentic AI, and marks the establishment of a new industry category—one that will empower legal professionals to serve clients with unprecedented insight and precision.”

When Clio acquired ShareDo earlier this year, Newton told BetaKit he thought the current scale of Clio’s platform put the company in a good position to be “the acquirer of choice in legaltech,” and that he saw more opportunity given the “explosion of innovation” happening across the sector. When asked if Clio hopes to continue being an active acquirer following vLex, the Clio spokesperson said the company is “always looking for strategic ways” to accelerate its product roadmap.

The vLex acquisition is expected to close later this year, subject to closing conditions and regulatory approvals.This deal comes nearly one year after Clio raised the largest software funding round in Canadian tech history. In July 2024, Clio closed a $900-million USD (then $1.24-billion CAD) Series F at a more than $4-billion CAD valuation, making it one of Canada’s highest-valued tech startups and, according to Clio, the world’s most valuable cloud-based legaltech company.

The spokesperson said Clio currently has an annual recurring revenue of $300 million USD while serving 200,000 legal professionals, but declined a pre-closing disclosure how those figures would look post-acquisition.

UPDATE (07/02/2025): This story has been updated with information shared by a Clio spokesperson.

Feature image courtesy Clio.