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

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

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

Throughout regulated sectors, enterprises have moved shortly to check generative AI, however privateness, safety, and knowledge governance considerations proceed to gradual adoption for delicate workflows — particularly in authorized, the place contracts can embrace privileged data, mental property, pricing, and deal phrases. Business analysis has constantly flagged knowledge safety and privateness as key limitations to wider GenAI deployment in skilled companies, pushing distributors like SpotDraft to pursue architectures that preserve core contract intelligence on the person’s system reasonably than routing it by way of 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 assessment and edits offline whereas maintaining the doc on the native machine. SpotDraft stated web connectivity remains to be required for login, licensing, and collaboration options, however contract assessment, threat scoring, and redlining can run absolutely 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 by way of exterior cloud fashions on account of privateness, safety, and compliance constraints.

“The way forward for how enterprise AI goes to be — proper now, there’s bought to be AI that’s near the doc, which is privateness vital, latency delicate, [and] legally delicate, and people are the issues that may transfer on system,” stated 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 device designed to use playbooks and suggestions immediately inside Microsoft Phrase, the best way authorized groups already work. “VerifAI will examine a contract in opposition to your tips, your playbooks, your prior insurance policies,” stated Madhav Bhagat (pictured above, proper), co-founder and CTO of SpotDraft.

Bijapur instructed 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 opinions and knowledge residency necessities can gradual or block using cloud-based AI instruments for delicate paperwork.

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

Since its launch in 2017, SpotDraft stated 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 stated 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 practically 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 analogous 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 stated, 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 the moment 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.

Bengaluru- and New York-based SpotDraft stated it has a group of 300-plus workers, 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.

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