Qualcomm backs SpotDraft to scale on-device contra...

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 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 Series B in February of final 12 months.

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 info, mental property, pricing, and deal phrases. Business analysis has persistently flagged knowledge safety and privateness as key obstacles to wider GenAI deployment in skilled companies, pushing distributors like SpotDraft to pursue architectures that hold core contract intelligence on the person’s machine slightly than routing it by 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 stated 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 usually can’t be routed by exterior cloud fashions because of privateness, safety, and compliance constraints.

“The way forward for how enterprise AI goes to be — proper now, there’s received to be AI that’s near the doc, which is privateness crucial, latency delicate, [and] legally delicate, and people are the issues that may transfer on machine,” 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 instrument designed to use playbooks and proposals immediately inside Microsoft Phrase, the way in which 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 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 opinions and knowledge residency necessities can gradual 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 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 machine 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 12 months, 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 almost 50,000 month-to-month lively customers. It additionally expects 100% year-over-year income progress in 2026, after rising 169% in 2024 and posting an analogous progress 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 broaden 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 growth and go-to-market efforts for on-device deployments. The startup’s on-device workflow is presently accessible to a restricted set of consumers, and the founders anticipate it to broaden extra broadly as appropriate AI PC {hardware} turns into extra broadly accessible.

Bengaluru- and New York-based SpotDraft stated it has a workforce of 300-plus workers, together with 15–20 within the U.S., the place COO Akshay Verma is predicated, 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 include Vertex Development Singapore, Trident Development Companions, Xeed VC, Arkam Ventures, and Prosus Ventures.