3 minBusiness
Legal AI startup Eve gives plaintiff law firms tools to compete with corporate giants
San Mateo startup Eve builds AI case management software for small plaintiff-side firms, reporting rapid growth in cases, revenue and investor backing.
San Mateo, California, startup Eve is building artificial intelligence tools for small plaintiff-side law firms, which represent ordinary people suing larger companies. Co-founder and CEO Jay Madheswaran says the company is aiming to level a market he describes as historically and drastically underserved, where most firms are tiny and operate with limited resources.
The imbalance, according to Madheswaran, begins with how lawyers are paid. Corporate firms have traditionally had the budgets to buy software and bill clients by the hour. Plaintiff firms often represent people who cannot afford legal fees that typically start at hundreds of dollars per hour. Instead, these lawyers usually work on contingency and are paid only when their clients win. That arrangement means a small firm must judge whether each case is economically viable, which limits the clients it can accept.
Eve's answer is an end-to-end AI platform for plaintiff firms, rather than a tool focused on a single step of a case. The aim is to free up lawyers' time across the legal process so they can take on more cases with the resources they already have. "We're finally giving David a slingshot," Madheswaran said, invoking the biblical story that gives the company's pitch its underdog framing.
The company reports strong growth. The number of cases managed on Eve's platform has risen roughly 75 percent since June, surpassing 350,000 across nearly 2,000 plaintiff law firms at the end of September. More than 50,000 of those cases have closed, resulting in more than $3.5 billion in settlements and judgments. Those results have helped Eve post sixfold year-over-year revenue growth.
Eve operates in a crowded field of legal AI startups. Harvey, valued at more than $15 billion, serves mainly large corporate firms and in-house counsel. Eve's focus on plaintiff practices places it in a different segment, though not an empty one. EvenUp and Supio also target plaintiff-side practices.
Eve has also attracted major investors. The company announced a $103 million Series B round in 2025 at a valuation above $1 billion. Spark Capital led the round, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Menlo Ventures. David Haber, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, told the publication that the business is inflecting sharply. Eve has grown to 275 employees, up nearly 40 percent since June, and plans to double its headcount in the Bay Area by spring 2026.
Haber linked the mission to the clients these firms serve, who may have been wrongfully terminated or injured at work and must confront a corporation or insurer with far greater resources. "What happens when David gets AI?" he said. "It evens the freaking playing field."
7
