Legaltech firm Clio has cemented its status as one of Canada’s most valuable private tech companies, following a major acquisition and funding round that values the firm at US$5 billion.

The Burnaby, B.C.-based company announced Monday that it completed a US$1-billion acquisition of global legal-research platform vLex, alongside a US$500-million Series G. 

The deal comes 16 months after Clio raised one of the biggest private investments in Canadian tech history—a US$900-million deal led by San Francisco-based New Enterprise Associates. It came in again to lead the latest round, with participation from other existing investors, TCV, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Sixth Street Growth and JMI Equity. The company has added US$2 billion to its valuation since its July 2024 funding round.

The financing, which was supplemented by a US$350-million debt facility from Blackstone and Blue Owl Capital, helped Clio finance the vLex deal, and gives it room to acquire more companies and expand the business, CFO Curt Sigfstead told The Logic. 

Sigfstead said the vLex deal changes Clio’s business in ways he doesn’t expect other acquisitions could. “This is substantially bigger than anything we’ve done,” he said. 

Clio’s products help lawyers run their firms—tracking cases, clients and billing. The acquisition of vLex, which supports the actual practice of law, will allow the company to offer an “intelligent legal work platform” that understands both the business and the substance of legal work, Sigfstead said. Vincent, vLex’s AI platform, draws on a library of more than a billion court documents and legal texts from 110 jurisdictions.

Founded in Barcelona and based in Miami, Fla., vLex works with large law firms, governments and in-house corporate legal teams, expanding Clio’s reach beyond small- and mid-sized law firms. The deal also gives Clio access to Spain and Latin American markets for the first time, and expands its presence in the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

As part of the acquisition, Clio paid vLex’s majority owner, Oakley Capital, partly in company shares rather than cash. CEO Jack Newton called the move “an incredible vote of confidence,” saying it shows Oakley’s belief in Clio’s AI strategy and the global potential of the combined business.

Sigfstead told The Logic the company isn’t in a hurry to go public, which it had previously been working toward, noting that private markets have been “accommodating and robust” for companies of Clio’s size. 

The company doesn’t have investor pressure to generate cash through an exit, Sigfstead added, especially as early shareholders sold a substantial amount of their equity in Clio’s July 2024 funding round. “We’re not a company that’s racing toward an IPO,” he said. “We’ll access the markets when it makes sense.”