13 million euros for JUPUS

The Cologne-based LegalTech startup JUPUS has closed a Series A funding round worth 13 million euros. The round is led by Semapa Next, while NRW.BANK is participating as a co-investor through its venture capital fund, NRW.Venture. Existing investors Acton Capital and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) are also increasing their investments.

With the fresh capital, JUPUS plans to further develop its AI platform, strengthen its market position in Germany, and prepare for expansion into other European countries.

A Structural Problem in the Legal Industry

JUPUS’s success comes at a time when many law firms are facing a fundamental problem: While the number of lawyers has risen steadily over the past few decades, the number of newly trained legal assistants is declining sharply.

According to the company, the number of new entrants to this field has fallen by more than 70 percent over the past 30 years. At the same time, administrative workloads at law firms continue to grow. Small and medium-sized law firms, in particular, are increasingly reaching their capacity limits as a result. JUPUS sees an opportunity here.

From Assistant to Digital Employee

The company does not describe its solution as just another assistant system, but rather as a new generation of legal AI. The AI secretariat handles numerous tasks independently: it conducts initial client meetings, structures inquiries, prepares cases, drafts legal documents, and handles administrative processes, including file creation.

According to JUPUS, this saves law firms more than 70 work hours per month. At the same time, lawyers gain time for their actual legal work and for serving their clients. The platform now processes more than 2,000 new cases daily. More than 2,000 legal professionals are already using the solution in their day-to-day work.

Significant Growth Figures

The company is also experiencing dynamic financial growth. In 2025, JUPUS quadrupled its annual recurring revenue (ARR). At the same time, the number of employees tripled to around 70. The number of users and cases processed has more than doubled within a year.

With the current funding round, the company has already raised a total of more than 20 million euros.

Investors See Opportunity in the European Market

For Semapa Next, JUPUS is far more than a traditional legal tech company. The new lead investor sees potential in the Cologne-based startup to establish a new category of legal software in Europe. Rather than merely supporting lawyers, the technology independently handles operational tasks, thereby becoming an active part of the law firm’s organization.

NRW.BANK also highlights the growing importance of AI solutions in reducing the workload on skilled professionals and increasing efficiency in specialized industries.

Europe as the Next Step in Growth

For founder and CEO René Fergen, the industry is only at the beginning of a fundamental transformation.

While major AI providers are increasingly announcing their own solutions for the legal market, JUPUS sees its competitive advantage in its deep specialization in legal processes, German and European professional law, and the specific requirements for data protection and client confidentiality.

The company relies on an extensive knowledge base drawn from millions of real-world case scenarios and pursues the vision of becoming the leading AI work platform for small and medium-sized law firms in Europe.

The new capital will now be used to develop additional features, strengthen the company’s market position, and prepare for European expansion.

AI Reaches the Core of Traditional Service Professions

JUPUS’s success also demonstrates how deeply artificial intelligence has now penetrated traditional knowledge-based professions. While the first wave of AI focused primarily on marketing, content, or software development, the technology is now increasingly reaching regulated and highly specialized industries.

The central question is no longer whether AI can support legal work, but rather which parts of a law firm’s daily operations can be fully automated in the future. JUPUS positions itself precisely at this intersection and aims to become the digital colleague for thousands of law firms across Europe.