# Bench IQ

Aiolum story: https://aiolum.com/story/bench-iq/ · added 2026-11-11 · updated 2026-11-11

**In short.** Bench IQ (Judicial analytics for litigators, Canada and United States): 4 of the top 5 Am Law 100 firms as customers, August 2025. Evidence grade E: no revenue figure was checked. Team: 3 founders named; headcount not published; offices in New York, Chicago and Toronto. Launched January 2024; still running.

Judicial analytics for litigators · Canada and United States · AI-native · team of 2 to 10 · still running · group: Legal and law firms

- Outcome: 4 of the top 5 Am Law 100 firms as customers, August 2025 (evidence grade of the headline number: E; no revenue figure)
- Launch: January 2024; months from launch to the outcome: 19
- Team: 3 founders named; headcount not published; offices in New York, Chicago and Toronto
- Outside funding: US$2.1M pre-seed and US$5.3M seed in August 2025, as reported by LawSites
- Main factor: Domain expertise
- Meters, 1 to 4: evidence strength 1, copyable pattern 1, capital needed 3
- Tags: AI-native, Small team, Funded, Running, B2B, Legal

Links:

- Visit benchiq.com: https://benchiq.com/

**The product.** A research service for litigators that shows how a named judge reasons. It reads filings, hearing transcripts and orders from US federal courts, and an AI agent answers questions with citations to the exact passages.

**Why it worked.** The founders knew the field from earlier work. One was a partner at the large law firm Kirkland & Ellis, and two had built the legal research company ROSS Intelligence. LawSites reported in August 2025 that the partner came up with the idea.

Evidence grades: A = disclosed by a public company, a filing or a payment processor, or verified by one; B = two or more independent reports agree, or a journalist confirmed it; C = a founder claim that no one else verified; D = reported, not verified: one founder claim or a third-party estimate with no second source; E = no revenue figure found, so the headline is a non-money fact and the other facts carry their own grades; calc = computed on this page from graded facts.

## Summary

Bench IQ sells judicial analytics to law firms: software that shows how a particular judge has reasoned in past cases. It reads hearing transcripts, the word-for-word records of court sessions, together with filings and orders. A lawyer asks a question in plain language and gets an answer that cites the passages. The company's home page says it covers all US federal district and bankruptcy courts.

The company says it was founded in 2023. LawSites reported in February 2024 that the product had launched in January to 12 of the 100 largest US firms. LawSites reported in August 2025 a US$5.3M seed round and four of the top five Am Law 100 firms as customers. The chief executive had co-founded ROSS Intelligence in 2014, a different company that closed in 2021.

No revenue figure was found, and the grade is E. Bench IQ did not disclose its prices or its number of customers to SiliconANGLE in August 2025. The customer claim is the company's own, repeated by LawSites and SiliconANGLE, and no firm is named.

## Why did Bench IQ work?

### A former law-firm partner brought the idea and ex-ROSS engineers built it

LawSites reported in August 2025 that Gettleman, a former Kirkland & Ellis partner, came up with the idea. Ovbiagele co-founded ROSS Intelligence in 2014. Isakov was founding engineer at ROSS and is now the chief technology officer.

### It reads hearing transcripts that written opinions leave out

Ovbiagele told LawSites in February 2024 that judges write opinions for only 3% of rulings. The company says it connects filings, hearing transcripts and orders. SiliconANGLE reported that it built a proprietary technique for the rulings that are not in writing.

### It plugs into the AI assistants that firms already approve

The home page lists Harvey, Legora, ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, and any assistant that supports MCP, a standard for connecting tools to assistants. The Harvey page describes how a firm turns the connector on.

## How it was built

These details come from the press and the company's own pages. They are grade C.

- SiliconANGLE reported that the company used its dataset to train commercial large language models. It also had to develop new ways to fine-tune them.
- LawSites wrote that the system uses large language models and AI agents to find patterns in judges' reasoning.
- The Harvey help page says answers cite their sources. It says the service may fetch federal court records from PACER and pays the fees up to a monthly limit.
- The privacy policy lists service providers, among them Amazon Web Services, Heroku, Datadog and Sentry.

Sources: [9, 8, 5, 6]

## Who tried this before Bench IQ, and why did they fail?

Two companies in our database of failed startups sold AI-assisted tools to lawyers. The values below are from that database on 11 November 2026 and are not independently verified.

The failed startups come from our database of dead startups, retold here in our own words; Its entries are AI-assisted summaries of public sources, so they carry no evidence grade.

### ROSS Intelligence (2015 to 2018 (record); platform closed 31 January 2021 (LawSites); funding US$13.0M burned; cause: Traction against incumbents)

- Promise: AI-powered legal research that finds case law faster than traditional methods.
- Why it died: The record says it struggled to gain traction against incumbents with large datasets. LawSites reported that a Thomson Reuters lawsuit forced it to shut down.
- Record: 

### jEugene (2015 to 2018; funding US$120K burned; cause: Could not adapt to the legal tech market)

- Promise: Contract review that finds errors and inconsistencies with an algorithm.
- Why it died: The record blames an inability to adapt to a fast-changing legal tech market. The same record suggests the company may still operate. The cause is uncertain.
- Record: 

## What changed

ROSS Intelligence sold AI legal research and closed in 2021 after Thomson Reuters sued it. LawSites reported that the suit alleged ROSS used Westlaw content to build its product. Bench IQ sells a different thing: how a judge reasons, from transcripts and filings.

Bench IQ says it built a proprietary dataset. The home page lists hearing transcripts and federal dockets, and the Harvey page says it may fetch records from PACER. This page could not verify where each transcript comes from.

## Can one person copy Bench IQ now?

**Verdict: Not as a solo founder, and not without funding.**

The company raised two rounds, US$2.1M and US$5.3M, as LawSites reported, and its founders included a law-firm partner and ex-ROSS engineers. What can be copied is the focus on one record that other tools skip.

1. Pick a professional group that pays for preparation, such as litigators before a hearing.
2. Find a record that exists but that tools do not search, such as hearing transcripts.
3. Put a lawyer in the founding team to define the questions.
4. Offer the product inside the assistants that the buyer's firm already approves.

**What is still open.** Other public records that professionals cannot search well: arbitration hearings, regulator meetings, tax tribunal decisions.

## How much revenue does Bench IQ make? The numbers, graded

A funded legal analytics company with press-reported customers and no published price or revenue. The facts below are company statements and press reports

| Fact | Value | Grade | Note | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Company start | 2023 | C | The About page says "Founded in 2023." SiliconANGLE called it a two-year-old company in August 2025. ROSS Intelligence, the founders' earlier company, is a separate company that started in 2014. | [2, 9] |
| Launch to firms | January 2024, to 12 of the 100 largest US firms | C | LawSites, 29 February 2024: Ovbiagele said 12 firms used it on live cases and the product was still in beta mode. He did not name the firms. | [7] |
| Customers, August 2025 | four of the top five Am Law 100 firms | C | LawSites wrote that the company landed them as customers. SiliconANGLE wrote that the platform is already used by them. The home page repeats the claim in November 2026. No firm is named. | [8, 9, 1] |
| How it charges | usage-based and seat-based | C | Ovbiagele told SiliconANGLE on 27 August 2025. The company would not disclose prices or the number of customers. | [9] |
| Pre-seed round | US$2.1M | C | LawSites wrote in February 2024 that it had just closed, led by Maple and Haystack. SiliconANGLE dates it to 2023 and Artificial Lawyer to 2024. | [7, 9, 10] |
| Seed round, 27 August 2025 | US$5.3M | C | LawSites: led by Battery Ventures and Inovia Capital, with CIBC Innovation Banking, MVP Ventures, Maple VC and Haystack VC. Artificial Lawyer noted that the currency is not clear. | [8, 9, 10] |
| Founders | 3 named | C | LawSites names Jimoh Ovbiagele (chief executive), Jeffrey Gettleman (former Kirkland & Ellis partner) and Maxim Isakov (chief technology officer) as the founders. The About page lists all three. | [8, 2] |
| Headcount | not published | C | The About page lists three executives and the Careers page lists open roles in engineering, applied AI, product design and product management. No source gives a number of employees. | [2, 3] |
| Coverage, November 2026 | all US federal district and bankruptcy courts | C | Home page claim. SiliconANGLE wrote in August 2025 that the company was focused on the federal judiciary and planned to add state courts. | [1, 9] |
| Connector to Harvey | live, page updated 29 October 2026 | C | The company's help page says a lawyer can ask Harvey a question and Harvey hands it to Bench IQ. The home page also lists Legora, ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. | [5, 1] |
| Months from launch to the customer claim | 19 months | calc | Calculated: January 2024 to August 2025. | [7, 8] |

How to read this table. Grade C is a statement by the company or its founder, including when a journalist repeats it. Grade D is one unverified statement. A "calc" value was computed on this page.

## Pricing

Bench IQ publishes no price. The /pricing address returned "Page Not Found" on 11 November 2026 (grade C)

| Plan | Per month, billed yearly (US$) | Per month, billed monthly (US$) | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|


The home page offers "Book a demo" and nothing else to buy. Ovbiagele told SiliconANGLE in August 2025 that pricing is both usage-based and seat-based. LawSites reported in February 2024 that he promised flexible pricing for firms of different sizes. No Internet Archive copy of a pricing page exists.

## When did Bench IQ launch, and how did it grow? Timeline

From a company founded in 2023 to four of the top five large firms as customers in August 2025. Each entry carries its grade.

- **2023** (grade C [2, 9]): The company gives 2023 as its founding year. SiliconANGLE places the pre-seed round in 2023.
- **January 2024** (grade C [7]): The product launches to 12 of the 100 largest US firms, according to LawSites.
- **29 February 2024** (grade C [7]): LawSites reports a US$2.1M pre-seed round led by Maple and Haystack, and the chief executive's earlier company ROSS Intelligence.
- **27 August 2025** (grade C [8, 9]): LawSites and SiliconANGLE report a US$5.3M seed round. LawSites adds four of the top five Am Law 100 firms as customers.
- **29 October 2026** (grade C [5]): The company's Harvey connector page shows this date as last updated.
- **November 2026** (grade C [1, 3]): The home page still says four of the top five Am Law 100 firms rely on Bench IQ. The company is hiring in the US and Canada.

## What could go wrong for Bench IQ?

- **What is not verified.** No revenue figure was found. The customer claim is the company's own statement, repeated by the press. No customer is named, and no independent source confirms that the firms pay. The company did not disclose prices or the number of customers to SiliconANGLE. The pre-seed year differs: 2023 in SiliconANGLE, February 2024 in LawSites. LawFuel wrote Am Law 200, not 100. A reader could look for a named customer, a price list or an interview with revenue.
- **Logos, counters, badges and testimonials are the company's claims.** The home page counter says 4 of the top 5 Am Law 100 firms rely on Bench IQ. Its quotes name only a role and a firm rank, such as "Associate, AmLaw 10 firm". It shows a SOC 2 Type II badge with a report link that was not read. The About page has sections headed "Early employees from" and "Backed by". The home page also has a strip headed "IN THE PRESS".
- **Judge analytics is a sensitive use, and the company rejects the word prediction.** The product analyzes how named judges have reasoned in public court records. Headlines on the company's press page speak of predicting or forecasting rulings. Ovbiagele told SiliconANGLE in August 2025 that the company is not trying to predict case outcomes.
- **The founders' earlier company was sued and closed.** Ovbiagele co-founded ROSS Intelligence, which shut down in January 2021 after a lawsuit by Thomson Reuters, according to LawSites. That suit concerned ROSS, not Bench IQ. LawSites reported in February 2024 that the case was still moving forward.

## Sources

1. Bench IQ home page, read 11 November 2026 — https://benchiq.com/ (grade C). Read in full. Source for the customer counter, the coverage claim, the unnamed quotes and the badge. The /pricing address returned 404.
2. Bench IQ About page, read 11 November 2026 — https://benchiq.com/about (grade C). Read in full. Source for the founding year, the three executives and the three office cities.
3. Bench IQ Careers page, read 11 November 2026 — https://benchiq.com/careers (grade C). Read in full. Lists open roles in the US and Canada. It gives no headcount.
4. Bench IQ Press page, read 11 November 2026 — https://benchiq.com/press (grade C). Read in full. A list of press headlines chosen by the company. The articles behind most of them were not read.
5. Bench IQ in Harvey (help page), read 11 November 2026 — https://benchiq.com/harvey (grade C). Read in full. Source for the Harvey connector, the PACER record fees and the update date of 29 October 2026.
6. Bench IQ privacy policy, read 11 November 2026 — https://benchiq.com/privacy-policy (grade C). Read in full. Source for the list of service providers.
7. LawSites, 29 February 2024: ROSS Cofounder Returns To Legal Tech with Startup Using AI To Surface Judges' Decision-Making Patterns — https://www.lawnext.com/2024/02/ross-cofounder-returns-to-legal-tech-with-startup-using-ai-to-surface-judges-decision-making-patterns.html (grade C). Read in full. Source for the launch to 12 firms, the pre-seed round and the ROSS history.
8. LawSites, 27 August 2025: Bench IQ, AI Startup Led By Former ROSS Cofounder to Understand Judges' Decision Patterns, Raises $5.3M Seed — https://www.lawnext.com/2025/08/bench-iq-ai-startup-led-by-former-ross-cofounder-to-understand-judges-decision-patterns-raises-5-3m-seed.html (grade C). Read in full. Source for the seed round, its investors, the founders and the four customer firms.
9. SiliconANGLE, 27 August 2025: Bench IQ raises $5.3M for AI-based judicial intelligence platform — https://siliconangle.com/2025/08/27/bench-iq-raises-5-3m-ai-based-judicial-intelligence-platform/ (grade C). Read in full. Source for the pricing model, the undisclosed prices and customer count, and the training approach.
10. Artificial Lawyer, 27 August 2025: Ex-ROSS Cofounder Bags $5.3m Seed For Judge Intelligence — https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/08/27/ex-ross-cofounder-bags-5-3m-seed-for-judge-intelligence/ (grade C). Read in full. A second report of the seed round, with a note that the currency is not clear.
11. LawFuel: Lawyers Built This AI to Read Judges' Minds, And BigLaw Is Already Hooked — https://www.lawfuel.com/lawyers-built-this-ai-to-read-judges-minds-and-biglaw-is-already-hooked/ (grade D). Read in full. Says Am Law 200 where other sources say Am Law 100. Used only for that difference.
12. Bench IQ home page, Internet Archive copy of 29 February 2024 — http://web.archive.org/web/20240229232334/https://benchiq.com/ (grade C). Read in full. An early access form, two unnamed quotes and no price.
13. Database of failed startups, local export — /method/#dead (grade C). Record pages read on the website on the day of writing. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.

Contact: aiolum@livyden.com. Run Bench IQ? Send corrections or a verified figure to aiolum@livyden.com (subject: Correction: Bench IQ).