Tradespace has closed a $15 million Series A funding round led by AVP to expand its AI-native intellectual property platform. The round included participation from existing investors Eniac Ventures, Amplo VC, and Scrum Ventures.

The funding will support the company’s mission to help enterprises shift IP development and management in-house, potentially cutting legal expenses by half and reducing patent filing times from weeks to under 24 hours.

Challenging Traditional IP Economics

The conventional IP law firm model has created an economic dilemma for in-house teams. Companies face a persistent trade-off between filing fewer patents to control costs or depleting budgets on routine filings through expensive external counsel.

“The traditional IP law firm model is broken. In house IP teams are being asked to support faster innovation cycles without increasing costs, despite law firm fees for drafting and prosecution reaching record levels,” explained Alec Sorensen, CEO and Co-Founder of Tradespace.

Tradespace addresses this challenge by integrating AI directly into research and development workflows. The platform streamlines the patent development process—from invention harvesting through application drafting—enabling in-house IP teams to operate at the pace of a technology company while maintaining legal standards.

Beyond Simple Drafting Tools

Unlike basic “copilot” tools designed merely to accelerate text drafting, Tradespace functions as a comprehensive IP Management Platform. The system incorporates AI workflows that support multiple IP functions: harvesting innovations, conducting prior art searches, drafting patents, responding to office actions, and managing licensing campaigns.

“The billable hour acts as a tax on innovation, forcing companies to decide which ideas to protect based on budget rather than merit,” said Sorensen. “Even when law firms have moved to fixed fees, companies have had to pay in other ways, whether in increased costs on the backend for prosecution or lower speed and quality. Our platform allows IP teams to recapture their budget and operate with the speed of a software company, not a law firm.”

The platform maintains attorney oversight throughout the process, producing work that meets senior partner standards while dramatically improving efficiency.

Measurable Impact for Enterprise Clients

Early results from Tradespace clients demonstrate significant operational improvements. Companies using the platform report a 50% reduction in spending on external legal counsel and a 40% increase in invention disclosures from their R&D teams. Filing timelines have compressed from weeks to days in many cases.

The platform currently manages over 440,000 patents across more than 80 organizations. Its client base includes Fortune 500 technology companies and 75% of top US research universities.

Strategic Growth and Recent Expansion

Tradespace’s Series A follows its November 2025 acquisition of Paragon Patents, which strengthened the company’s technical capabilities in agentic workflows and AI-driven patent drafting. The company was co-founded by Sorensen and has positioned itself as a replacement for traditional billable hour structures in IP law.

By combining a secure system of record with proprietary attorney-grade drafting technology, Tradespace enables in-house teams to control the entire IP lifecycle—from initial invention disclosure through filing—without heavy reliance on external counsel.

Investor Perspective on IP Innovation

AVP’s investment reflects confidence in Tradespace’s approach to bridging software capabilities with legal services.

“In-house teams are tired of the administrative trap. They want to be strategic architects, not invoice approvers,” said Manish Agarwal, General Partner at AVP. “Tradespace is the first company to successfully close the gap between software and legal services, giving corporations ownership of the entire process. We believe this platform will become the standard operating system for the Global 2000.”

AVP is an independent global investment platform managing more than €2.5 billion in assets across venture, early growth, growth, and fund of funds strategies. Since its 2016 establishment, the firm has invested in over 60 technology companies across Europe and North America.

The Series A positions Tradespace to scale its platform and expand its presence among large enterprises seeking to modernize their IP operations.

Origianl Creator: Ekaterina Pisareva
Original Link: https://justainews.com/companies/funding-news/tradespace-raises-15m-series-a-led-by-avp/
Originally Posted: Mon, 26 Jan 2026 15:06:44 +0000