U of T spinout led by Benjamin Alarie raises $167-million as demand for its ChatGPT-like chatbot for tax pros takes off

The Globe and Mail reports Blue J Legal Inc., a Toronto software startup that sells a chatbot for tax specialists powered by large language models, has secured $167-million in financing led by two U.S. venture-capital firms.

Blue J is a University of Toronto spinout led by Professor Benjamin Alarie, Osler Chair in Business Law, co-founded 10 years ago with Professors Anthony Niblett, Canada Research Chair in Law, Economics, and Innovation, and Albert Yoon, Michael J. Trebilcock Chair in Law and Economics. The Globe and Mail reports: 

"...the company began developing artificial-intelligence-powered software in the mid-2010s. Its original product helped lawyers and accountants speed up the process of researching complex taxation matters, powered by predictive analytics software. 

By last December, Blue J could produce answers within 10 seconds that were 95-per-cent-plus accurate and enabled users to have technical back-and-forth conversations about complex tax matters with the program. 

Sales have continued to expand at a fast clip, clocking in at more than $20-million (Canadian) on an annualized basis now, making Blue J a relatively rare company in the enterprise-software space to have experienced strong sales growth amid a continuing period of economic uncertainty."

Read the full story in The Globe and Mail (paywall)

U of T News: Law and computer science collaborate to change the future of legal research (April 2015)