Industry-first software uses AI to shake up $2T consulting and legal market
Hence announced today the official launch of its first-of-its-kind AI-driven enterprise software to enable CFOs and General Counsels to take control of their legal, consulting and other professional relationships to drive better returns.
Hence uses data and AI to help companies search & see, evaluate and negotiate better with their professional providers, addressing the absence of robust tools to ensure corporations are working with the best providers for meeting their organizational goals. Hence allows companies to develop better provider relationships by helping them use the information they already have combined with the information they don’t have but wish they did.
The proprietary software is already being deployed, with ongoing pilot programs at several Fortune 500 corporations and major multinationals ahead of the formal launch. Company co-founders Stephen Heitkamp, Arun Shanmuganathan and Sean West said the company sees a tremendous opportunity to reorient how companies think about the hundreds of millions of dollars a year spent on “knowledge services.”
“Companies turn to external consultants and lawyers for bet-the-business decisions. Choosing anything less than the best can be fatal. Yet, most fail to leverage technology to discover who is excellent and who is mediocre in this opaque $2 trillion market. We built Hence to equip companies to take control of their relationships through data and AI,” said Sean West.
Hence recently closed a $895,000 funding round led by angel investors on three continents who are exited founders, multinational CEOs, and professional investors at leading firms. The investment is a significant endorsement of Hence’s proprietary enterprise software and the company’s vision and opportunity to disrupt the market for professional provider services. Hence plans to use the funds to drive the company’s aggressive plan to pilot with six Fortune Global 500 companies this year.
“I’ve built, bought and sold businesses large and small and worked with consultants and lawyers all over the world. Despite all my experience, I still mostly need to rely on referrals and reputation to find and select new providers. I invested in Hence because I want to be able to make these decisions with much more data at my disposal and I think Hence has the team to make that happen,” said Daglar Cizmeci, who led the investment round.
“The legal industry – like many professional services – has always suffered from a lack of data about performance and value, creating the conditions for an imperfect marketplace and decisions based on relationships held at the firm level. Hence is using technology to shine a light on how individual lawyers perform which, in turn, will enable better value-based decisions to be made by their clients,” said Al Giles, former Chief Revenue Officer at legal business Axiom, who participated in the investment round.
