After tripling revenue, Lexion lands $20M | Amazon, Microsoft vets raise $10M for computer vision startup

Lexion tripled revenue in 2022 and now investors are throwing more fuel on its fire. The Seattle startup gained a foothold by using artificial intelligence to help legal departments manage contracts. But now the company — a finalist for Startup of the Year at the GeekWire Awards — is taking aim at a much larger vision backed by a $20 million investment round. (Above, from left: Lexion CTO and co-founder Emad Elwany; CEO and co-founder Gaurav Oberoi; and Chief Legal Officer Jessica Nguyen.)

More startup fundings: 

• Former Microsoft and Amazon engineers are the co-founders of Groundlight, a Seattle computer vision startup that just raised $10 million. 

• SpecterOps, a Seattle startup that helps companies analyze cyberattack paths, raised $25 million.

• Healthcare startup 98point6 raised more than $30 million to support its transition to a licensor of virtual care solutions. 

• See all recent Pacific Northwest startup investments at our fundings list. 

Bill Gates says he's bullish about the potential for artificial intelligence to transform education and learning — telling an audience of business and education leaders this week that AI will eventually “be as good a tutor as any human ever could.” Read more. 

A new law will make it easier to recycle dead batteries in Washington state, with rules that require producers of batteries and battery-containing products to fund a program for collecting and recycling batteries. Read more.

Hot links:

• Where AI goes to learn: The Washington Post and Seattle’s Allen Institute for AI analyzed which websites are being scraped for answers by seemingly all-knowing chatbots.

• ‘This is so painful to watch’: That’s the take from University of Washington linguistics professor Emily Bender, who criticized 60 Minutes and Google CEO Sundar Pichai for “working in concert to heap on the #AIHype.” (Medium)

• Netflix ejects DVDs: The streaming giant is winding down its classic DVD-in-the-mail service, and will send out the last red envelope on Sept. 29. (Netflix)

• Geeking out: The Seattle Kraken won the first playoff game in franchise history and our favorite Geekie hockey player was part of the action. (Twitter)