Home / Technology / Privacy-First AI: SpotDraft Secures $8M for Offline Review
Privacy-First AI: SpotDraft Secures $8M for Offline Review
27 Jan
Summary
- SpotDraft secured $8 million in a Series B extension from Qualcomm.
- The funding fuels on-device contract review technology for sensitive data.
- New capital will expand SpotDraft's enterprise AI capabilities globally.
SpotDraft recently secured an $8 million Series B extension investment from Qualcomm Ventures. This funding round values the startup at approximately $380 million, nearly doubling its previous valuation. The capital injection will be used to scale SpotDraft's on-device contract review technology, addressing growing demand for privacy-first enterprise AI solutions that operate without sending sensitive data to the cloud.
This initiative is particularly crucial for regulated sectors like legal, where contracts often contain privileged information. SpotDraft's VerifAI workflow demonstrated the capability to perform contract review and edits entirely offline on Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptops, keeping documents local. While login and collaboration features require connectivity, core review processes run without cloud reliance.
Co-founder and CEO Shashank Bijapur emphasized the future of enterprise AI will involve on-device capabilities for privacy-critical, latency-sensitive, and legally sensitive tasks. SpotDraft's technology aims to apply playbooks and recommendations directly within Microsoft Word, comparing contracts against company guidelines. This on-device approach is seeing significant traction in tightly regulated industries such as defense and pharmaceuticals.
On-device models have significantly closed the gap with cloud-based systems in both quality and speed, with performance on new chips being remarkably fast. Since its 2017 launch, SpotDraft has grown to serve over 700 customers and processes more than 1 million contracts annually, with contract volumes increasing by 173% year-over-year. The company anticipates 100% year-over-year revenue growth for 2026.
SpotDraft intends to use the new funds to deepen product and AI capabilities and expand its enterprise reach across the Americas, EMEA, and India. Qualcomm's involvement extends to joint development and go-to-market strategies for on-device deployments. The company's on-device workflow is currently in limited access but is expected to broaden as compatible AI PC hardware becomes more widespread. SpotDraft employs over 300 staff across its global operations.
