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Startups & Venture·July 20, 2026·1 min read

13 legal startups to watch in 2026, according to investors

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Legal has flipped from “too regulated to touch” to one of the cleaner AI vertical plays—structured workflows, expensive labor, and clear ROI. If you run an in-house legal team, this is the moment to pilot AI-native vendors before your outside counsel bakes similar tools into higher hourly rates.

Startups & Venture

Kai-Fu Lee stopped building AI models and started selling enterprise data infrastructure. Now 01.ai is heading for a Hong Kong IPO.

01.ai’s pivot from pure models to enterprise data infrastructure in China is a read on where defensibility and revenue sit—own the data plumbing and compliance layer, not just the weights. The unwind of offshore structures to target a 2027 Hong Kong IPO is another signal that serious China-facing AI businesses are aligning capital structure with domestic listing paths.