Patlytics, an AI-powered patent analytics platform, desires to help enterprises, IP professionals and law firms speed up their patent workflows, from discovery, analytics, comparisons and prosecution to litigation.
The fledgling startup secured $4.5 million in seed funding, oversubscribed and closed in just a few days, led by Google’s AI-focused VC arm, Gradient Ventures.
Patlytics was co-founded by CEO Paul Lee, a former enterprise capitalist at Tribe, and CTO Arthur Jen, a serial entrepreneur who co-founded and served as CTO of the web3 wallet platform Magic. Their shared vision and complementary skills laid the muse for Patlytics, driven by their firsthand experiences and a deep understanding of the industry’s pain points.
The co-founders told TechCrunch they witnessed many opportunities within the IP space. Lee, who spent most of his previous profession investing in vertical SaaS and AI and just a few legal tech startups, got here across many IP firms that used antiquated techniques in a workflow that (he thought) must be digitalized. While working at Magic, Jen dealt intensively with filing and defending patents to guard company technology.
“The AI revolution in patent intelligence is just not nearly efficiency; it’s about transforming how patent professionals strategize and interact with the whole patent lifecycle,” Lee said in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch. “Recognizing the intricate mix of technical and legal expertise required for patent work, we’ve developed our platform to be an indispensable ally for patent professionals.”
Traditional patent prosecution and litigation workflows, which rely heavily on manual input, are complex and time-consuming, Lee continued. The research and discovery phase, which involves searching and analyzing large volumes of patent data, demands significant effort, encompassing web searches, piecemeal manual investigations, and inherently inefficient procedures.”
What sets the startup other than its industry peers like Anaqua, Clarivate and Patsnap is that Patlytics is “the only provider offering end drafts and extensive chart solutions” in its current AI-first approach by way of insights and analytics, Lee explained.
One other difference is the platform doesn’t rely entirely on software solutions, but has a spot for human participation in the method.
Image Credits: Patlytics / Co-founders: Arthur Jen (CTO) and Paul Lee (CEO)
The outfit recently launched its product, which is SOC-2 certified, and already serves some top-tier law firms and just a few in-house legal counsels at enterprises as customers. The corporate didn’t disclose the variety of clients resulting from confidentiality agreements. Its goal users include IP law firms and firms with several patents.
“Protecting mental property stays a serious priority and business requirement for information technology, physical product and biotechnology firms. As firms incorporate AI into their latest products, firms from the auto to the pharmaceutical industry are keen to guard latest inventions and look ahead to infringement from competitors,” said Gradient’s general partner, Darian Shirazi. “We’re excited to partner with the team at Patlytics as they leverage the recent transformative innovations in AI to reinvent the mental property protection industry.”
The outfit will use the proceeds to take a position in product and AI development and go-to-market function, aiming to cover all relevant workflows for patent prosecution and litigation. As well as, it plans to bolster its engineering team. The corporate has 11 employees.
“Knowing that navigating the intricate landscape of mental property could be laborious, our AI-integrated patent workflow goals to boost the efficiency and supply insights, transforming IP protection right into a dynamic force shaping the long run technological landscape,” Jen said. “We construct our technology with data security and privacy in mind, safeguarding sensitive information throughout the patent lifecycle.”
Other participants within the round included 8VC, Alumni Ventures, Gaingels, Joe Montana’s Liquid 2 Ventures, Position Ventures, Tribe Capital and Vermilion Ventures. Notably, the round also attracted a bunch of angel backers, including partners at premier law firms, Datadog president Amit Agarwal, Fiscal Note founder Tim Hwang and Tapas Media founder Chang Kim.
