They left McKinsey to help businesses fight patent violations. See the pitch deck they used to raise $10 million. (www.businessinsider.com)

Former McKinsey consultants Oskar Block and Oscar Adamsson have launched Stilta, a startup utilizing AI to assist businesses in detecting and combating patent violations. Established in January, Stilta has successfully raised $10.5 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz. Block's vision was to modernize intellectual property management, which has traditionally been a labor-intensive process dominated by legal professionals. By harnessing AI technology, Stilta streamlines patent analysis into parallel tasks, enabling legal teams to efficiently gather and evaluate evidence across various sources, while allowing attorneys to maintain control over decision-making. The significance of Stilta's offering lies in its potential to disrupt the legal tech landscape, especially given the mounting complexity of patent work. By reducing reliance on external law firms—about 60% of its current clients are law firms, while 40% are corporate legal departments—the platform aims to lower legal costs and enhance in-house capabilities. With competitors like Patlytics and DeepIP also vying for a share of the patent lifecycle market, Stilta's innovative approach could reshape how businesses manage their intellectual property, as evidenced by its rapid growth and the backing from leading investors in the field.