Stilta raises $10.5M to automate patent litigation research

Stilta announced on Tuesday that it has raised a $10.5 million seed round—a phase of early-stage funding—led by Andreessen Horowitz. The investment round also included participation from Y Combinator alongside operators from OpenAI, Legora, and Lovable. Stilta was co-founded by CEO Oskar Block, Tobias Estreen, Petrus Werner, and Oscar Adamsson. Block, who launched his first startup at age 18, noted that he has always felt drawn to resolving complex data challenges. He conceived the idea for Stilta after learning about the daily routine of a patent attorney who had spent 30 years reading the same types of documents in the same manner.

The company’s platform uses AI agents to automate research and analytical work for intellectual property cases, targeting patent litigation, which is the legal process of enforcing patent rights. This automation addresses the labor-intensive work that has historically made patent litigation slow and expensive. Through the software, users input a patent number and relevant content, prompting a network of AI agents to search for conflicting patents, flag similar properties, and retrieve filing and court histories. Block emphasized that the human professional remains in control of the analysis. He explained that the agents reason in parallel and converge similarly to a room of specialists, but at a scale that human teams cannot match, producing litigation-grade output that includes a report and claim charts with precise citations to all evidence.

Legal technology has become an active sector amid the broader artificial intelligence boom, with other companies such as Solve Intelligence and DeepIP operating in the space. Block noted that parts of the legal industry are seeing AI-accelerated change, while other parts may not be ready for it for a long time. He observed that many companies hold patent portfolios they have never enforced, licensed, or analyzed because the cost of doing so was prohibitive. By removing this analytical bottleneck, Stilta aims to help companies monetize or enforce patent portfolios they previously ignored due to high costs. As Oskar Block, the company’s CEO, stated, “The question isn’t really whether the legal system is prepared for AI. It’s whether companies are prepared for what becomes possible when the analytical bottleneck disappears.”

Why it matters

Stilta aims to lower the cost barrier for patent litigation, potentially allowing companies to monetize or enforce patent portfolios they previously ignored due to prohibitive costs.