Four legal tech companies have fought off competition to join Allen & Overy's vaunted Fuse incubator program.

Apiax, Define, HighQ and Scissero will move into A&O's flagship tech space in early May this year, after beating 100 applicants for this year's round.

The companies will join Fuse veterans Avvoka, Legatics, and Nivaura, which have been in the program since it launched in September 2017. They also join fintech company Regnosys, which was selected for the second round of the program last April.

Companies to leave the program this year include Kira, which raised $50 million in its first external funding round while on the program, and Bloomsbury AI, which was purchased by Facebook in July.

Fuse intake 2019

  • Apiax – This startup aims to transform complex financial regulations into machine-readable rules.
  • Define – A tool to speed up the legal drafting process by helping lawyers find defined terms and references in documents more easily.
  • HighQ – A secure file-sharing, project management and social platform that aims to improve efficiency and collaboration in a business.
  • Scissero – A legal AI platform that can automate the drafting of legal agreements.

Former capital markets partner and head of Fuse, Shruti Ajitsaria, said the applicants provided a “really strong field”, and that A&O partners were involved in ensuring that the final companies selected could build strong future relationships with the firm.

Each new company will have a designated A&O partner sponsor, who will build the relationship between the firm and the startup. These partners were also involved in the selection process for the companies.

Applications opened for the third round of Fuse on January 25 this year. It aims to help A&O lawyers and clients get a better understanding of the technology they can benefit from.

During the first two runs of the program, the firm said the Fuse companies were visited more than 8,000 times by A&O lawyers and met with more than 200 clients.