According to EU-Startups, London-based Orbital has raised a €50 million Series B funding round led by Brighton Park Capital, with participation from new investors like RELX’s venture arm REV, The LegalTech Fund, and Grosvenor Group, plus existing backers JLL Spark and Seedcamp. The company, co-founded by CEO Will Pearce and Ed Boulle in 2018, supports over 200,000 residential and commercial real estate transactions annually for more than 5,000 property professionals. This new capital, bringing total funding to €63 million, will accelerate US expansion following the opening of a New York office in 2025, with plans to double headcount and establish more US hubs. The funding round stands out as one of the larger growth-stage raises in European LegalTech, against a backdrop of other notable deals like Sweden’s Legora raising €70.6 million and Italy’s Lexroom securing €16.2 million. Orbital’s platform aims to replace manual review of centuries-old deeds and maps, automating legal workflows for a global real estate market Pearce calls “the world’s largest asset class.”
The Domain-Specific AI Bet
Here’s the thing about the current AI gold rush: everyone’s building these massive, general-purpose language models. But Orbital’s funding, and the broader trend highlighted in the report, suggests a pivot. Investors are now placing big bets on highly specialized, vertical AI. Real estate law isn’t just any niche. It’s a monster of complexity, buried under piles of archaic documents, interdependent records, and local regulations. A generic legal AI might help draft a simple contract, but can it parse a 150-year-old property deed or understand the spatial implications of a zoning map? Probably not. Orbital’s entire pitch is that you need AI purpose-built for this one, gigantic problem. And investors like Brighton Park Capital are buying it, literally. Partner Kevin Magan pointed directly at the “critical gap” in the market. This isn’t about a slightly better chatbot; it’s about automating a core, high-stakes business process that’s been stuck in the 19th century.
Stakeholder Shakeup
So who wins and who feels the pressure? For the 5,000+ law firms, in-house teams, and developers using Orbital, the promise is straightforward: speed and reliability. If the tech works as advertised, it turns weeks of grueling due diligence into a process of hours or days. That’s a massive competitive advantage. But let’s be skeptical for a second. This also means a fundamental change in workflow. Senior partners whose expertise is navigating those opaque, manual processes might see their value proposition shift. The skill set for a real estate lawyer could become less about heroic document review and more about overseeing and validating AI output. For the broader real estate ecosystem—title companies, REITs, developers—faster, more transparent transactions mean capital can move more efficiently. That’s huge for a market defined by illiquidity and friction. But the real impact is on the market itself. Orbital talks about creating a “single, secure workspace” for the entire asset lifecycle. If they succeed, they’re not just a tool vendor; they become the foundational operating system for real estate legal work. That’s a much bigger ambition than just selling software.
The European LegalTech Context
The article frames this perfectly. Orbital’s €50 million is a standout, but it’s part of a steady drumbeat of investment across Europe. Sweden’s Legora got €70 million for law firm collaboration. Italy’s Lexroom got €16 million for generative AI services. We’re seeing seed rounds from Switzerland to Denmark to Spain. The message is clear: the European LegalTech AI sector is maturing. The early, experimental seed-stage money is now being followed by serious growth-stage capital for companies that have found product-market fit in a specific domain. It’s no longer about “AI for lawyers.” It’s about “AI for real estate lawyers” or “AI for IP lawyers” or “AI for EU regulatory research.” This specialization is what investors are betting will drive real adoption and revenue. Orbital, with its focus on the largest asset class on earth, is arguably at the vanguard of this trend. The question now is whether their deep focus on real estate gives them an unassailable moat, or if the giant legal publishers and broader tech platforms will eventually decide to build or buy their way into this space.
