Qualcomm backs SpotDraft to scale on-device contract AI with valuation doubling toward $400M

[ad_1] As demand grows for privacy-first enterprise AI that may run with out sending delicate information to the cloud, SpotDraft has raised $8 million from Qualcomm Ventures in a strategic Collection B extension to scale its on-device contract evaluate tech for regulated authorized workflows.

The extension values SpotDraft at round $380 million, the startup informed TechCrunch, almost double its $190 million post-money valuation following its $56 million Collection B in February of final yr.

Throughout regulated sectors, enterprises have moved rapidly to check generative AI, however privateness, safety, and information governance considerations proceed to sluggish adoption for delicate workflows — particularly in authorized, the place contracts can embrace privileged data, mental property, pricing, and deal phrases. Trade analysis has persistently flagged information safety and privateness as key limitations to wider GenAI deployment in skilled providers, pushing distributors like SpotDraft to pursue architectures that maintain core contract intelligence on the person’s machine slightly than routing it via the cloud.

At Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit 2025, SpotDraft demonstrated its VerifAI workflow working end-to-end on Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptops, executing contract evaluate and edits offline whereas protecting the doc on the native machine. SpotDraft mentioned web connectivity remains to be required for login, licensing, and collaboration options, however contract evaluate, threat scoring, and redlining can run totally offline with out sending paperwork to the cloud.

SpotDraft sees authorized as an early proving floor for on-device enterprise AI, arguing that delicate contracts typically can't be routed via exterior cloud fashions as a consequence of privateness, safety, and compliance constraints.

“The way forward for how enterprise AI goes to be — proper now, there’s acquired to be AI that's near the doc, which is privateness important, latency delicate, [and] legally delicate, and people are the issues that can transfer on machine,” mentioned Shashank Bijapur (pictured above, left), co-founder and CEO of SpotDraft, in an interview.

SpotDraft says VerifAI’s on-device functionality extends past merely producing summaries, with the instrument designed to use playbooks and suggestions instantly inside Microsoft Phrase, the best way authorized groups already work. “VerifAI will examine a contract towards your pointers, your playbooks, your prior insurance policies,” mentioned Madhav Bhagat (pictured above, proper), co-founder and CTO of SpotDraft.

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<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1920" height="1149" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg" alt="SpotDraft's VerifAI in Microsoft Word" class="wp-image-3086018" srcset="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg 1920w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg?resize=150,90 150w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg?resize=300,180 300w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg?resize=768,460 768w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg?resize=680,407 680w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg?resize=1200,718 1200w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg?resize=1280,766 1280w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg?resize=430,257 430w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg?resize=720,431 720w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg?resize=900,539 900w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg?resize=800,479 800w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg?resize=1536,919 1536w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg?resize=668,400 668w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg?resize=627,375 627w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg?resize=1031,617 1031w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg?resize=708,424 708w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/microsoft-word-verifai-tool_68493a.jpg?resize=50,30 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px"/> SpotDraft’s VerifAI works in Microsoft Phrase Picture Credit:SpotDraft

Bijapur informed TechCrunch that the demand for on-device AI is rising most clearly in tightly regulated sectors, together with protection and pharma, the place inner safety evaluations and information residency necessities can sluggish or block the usage of cloud-based AI instruments for delicate paperwork.

On-device fashions have quickly closed the hole with cloud-based techniques, each in output high quality and response instances, Bhagat mentioned. “Now we’ve come to a spot the place, by way of eval, we're seeing as little as 5% distinction between the frontier fashions, and a few of these fine-tuned on machine fashions,” he mentioned, including that speeds on newer chips are actually “one-third of what we get within the cloud.”

Since its launch in 2017, SpotDraft mentioned it has reached greater than 700 clients, up from round 400 in February final yr, and counts Apollo.io, Panasonic, Zeplin, and Whatfix amongst its customers. The corporate mentioned adoption is rising on its contract lifecycle administration platform, with clients now processing over 1 million contracts yearly, contract volumes rising 173% year-over-year, and almost 50,000 month-to-month lively customers. It additionally expects 100% year-over-year income development in 2026, after rising 169% in 2024 and posting an identical development price in 2025, although it didn't share particular income figures.

SpotDraft plans to make use of the brand new capital to deepen its product and AI capabilities and increase its enterprise presence throughout the Americas, the EMEA area (Europe, Center East, and Africa), and India, Bijapur mentioned, including that Qualcomm’s involvement extends past financing into joint improvement and go-to-market efforts for on-device deployments. The startup’s on-device workflow is at present accessible to a restricted set of consumers, and the founders count on it to increase extra broadly as appropriate AI PC {hardware} turns into extra extensively accessible.

“SpotDraft’s skill to deploy their proprietary fashions securely on-device utilizing Snapdragon platforms represents a significant development for a privacy-critical business,” mentioned Quinn Li, senior vp, Qualcomm Applied sciences, and international head of Qualcomm Ventures.

Bengaluru- and New York-based SpotDraft mentioned it has a crew of 300-plus staff, together with 15–20 within the U.S., the place COO Akshay Verma relies, and 4 to 5 within the UK, with the remainder of the workforce in Bengaluru.

Thus far, the startup has raised $92 million, together with the newest Qualcomm Ventures funding. Its earlier buyers embrace Vertex Progress Singapore, Trident Progress Companions, Xeed VC, Arkam Ventures, and Prosus Ventures.