Practice management platform Clio today announced it raised $250 million in Series D funding, the largest single sum in Canadian legal technology's history, according to Clio.

The investment round was led by growth equity firms TCV and JMI Equity. Clio noted TCV has previously invested in Avvo, LegalZoom and OpenText.

Clio CEO and co-founder Jack Newton said this latest investment will focus on making it easier "for consumers to find and connect with lawyers and make it more efficient for lawyers to deliver legal services—in broad terms more efficiently and cost-effectively."

Lawyers are under pressure to be accessible and collaborative or risk losing clients, Newton said, adding that such pressure represents an opportunity for Clio to make "a more effortless legal experience" that leverages Clio's cloud technology. He said his company will accomplish that feat by improving and adding to its suite of products, which currently includes case management, document review, billing, workflow and document automation and client relationship management geared to small and midsize law firms' workflow.

Newton wouldn't provide specific details of which programs will be updated.

Last October, Clio acquired its first company, CRM tool Lexicata. Looking ahead, Newton wouldn't rule out other acquisitions, saying he looks for a company that "is helping address a pain point we think our customers have" that could benefit from being included in Clio's suite, when sizing up possible companies to acquire.

Although Lexicata was Clio's first acquisition, the cloud-based practice management platform has teamed up with fellow legal tech companies to strengthen legal services before. Last year it integrated with on-demand legal service provider Lawclerk, which allows its users to automatically sync billing information, project deadlines and tasks to Clio.

Clio's investment announcement arrives as the legal tech space has seen "explosive" funding growth in the last few years in a legal industry "notoriously late to adopt new technology," the company said in its press release.

Indeed, although Clio's investment doesn't match LegalZoom's record-setting $500 million investment in 2018, legal tech was able to raise impressive capital to fund their endeavors this year. Take for instance, legal technology software provider Onit Inc. starting 2019 with a $200 million investment. Later that month, e-discovery technology and services company Disco announced it raised $83 million to fund expansion. Since the start of this year, other legal technology companies announced new investments, including analytics provider ayfie raising $10 million, Elevate Services announcing a $25 million investment and Litify securing $50 million.

JMI Equity said it invested in Clio because they saw an opportunity to innovate in the legal tech industry.

"We believe the legal software space presents significant opportunities for continued disruption, and Clio is the clear leader," said JMI Equity general partner Matt Emery, who joined Clio's board of directors after the investment.

Along with Emery's addition to the board, Clio also announced Mark Britton joined its board of directors. Britton is the founder and former chairman and CEO of Avvo, a legal marketplace that was acquired by Internet Brands in 2018.

Editor's Note: This article has been updated with comment from Clio CEO and co-founder Jack Newton.