Birmingham based ClearPath AI raises £1m pre seed to build AI OS for legal services
This article covers ClearPath AI, a startup that has launched in Birmingham after raising £1m in a pre-seed funding round to build an AI operating system for legal and professional services. The development aims to support legal and other professional services by integrating AI into existing workflows and to fund UK commercial expansion, product development and local hiring in the West Midlands.
ClearPath AI has launched in Birmingham after raising £1 million in a pre-seed funding round to build an AI operating system for legal and professional services; the company says the money will fund UK commercial expansion, recruitment of more than 20 roles and further product development. The venture is commercially based in Birmingham with engineering in Ljubljana, and its founding team positions the product as an AI-native alternative to traditional business software.
Why it matters
Professional services firms spend substantial time on document review, research, inter‑organisation communication and manual handoffs. Vendors and new entrants are racing to show how AI can reduce that burden without forcing firms to rip out long‑running systems and workflows. ClearPath AI’s approach — an operating system designed around AI rather than retrofitted AI features — speaks directly to that integration challenge.
The move also highlights wider regional trends: the West Midlands is aiming to attract more tech investment and jobs outside London, and founders with local roots are increasingly choosing regional bases to build teams and commercial operations.
Inside the product
ClearPathAI’s core product, ClearPathOS, is presented as an operating system for professional services that embeds AI into the architecture from the start. The company says the platform is designed to sit alongside organisations’ existing software, integrating with current systems and data rather than replacing them.
Target sectors include legal and other professional services where staff still spend large amounts of time on repetitive review and data processing tasks. The firm’s commercial operations are in Birmingham while the engineering team is based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Early trials are underway with organisations testing the platform; ClearPath AI expects to announce customer, integration and partnership updates as it moves from launch to wider deployment.
In the announcement, Rudi Kesic, Founder and CEO at ClearPath AI, said:
Most business software was designed in a world where systems stored information and people performed the work. AI fundamentally changes that model. Software can increasingly understand what is happening, reason over the information available and participate in getting the work done. We didn't start by asking how we could add AI to an existing product. We started with a blank sheet of paper and asked what the operating system for professional services should look like if artificial intelligence was part of the architecture from day one. That's what we've built with ClearPathOS.
Who are the investors?
The company says the £1 million pre‑seed round came from entrepreneurs and senior industry figures; no lead investor was named in the announcement. Proceeds will be used for commercial expansion in the UK, recruitment across sales, marketing, customer success, product, design and business operations, and continued product development.
ClearPath AI presented the raise as a founder‑led round focused on building commercial momentum and hiring in the West Midlands while keeping engineering in Slovenia. There were no investor quotes disclosed with the release.
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Founder perspective
Founder Rudi Kesic framed the business as both technical and personal: he grew up in Coventry, has worked across Birmingham and the West Midlands, and previously built and sold a legal technology company in a deal involving Munich‑based private equity investor AURELIUS. Kesic said he returned to founding with a changed view of success, prioritising job creation and shared ownership.
In the announcement, Rudi Kesic, Founder and CEO at ClearPath AI, said:
I've spent more than 25 years building businesses, and after selling my last technology company I genuinely didn't think I would start again. I thought that chapter of my life might be finished. But once I stepped away, I realised I still wanted to build. What has changed is what success means to me. I've been fortunate enough to create wealth through the businesses I've built. This time I want to create that opportunity for many more people - careers, responsibility, ownership and the chance to participate in the value they help create. I grew up in Coventry and I've worked in Birmingham for much of my life. This region gave me opportunities, and I want ClearPath to create opportunities here for the next generation.
Kesic also contrasted the company’s strategy with incumbent vendors, arguing the window for new products built with AI at their core is unusually large in this cycle.
In the announcement, Rudi Kesic, Founder and CEO at ClearPath AI, said:
Great technology doesn't change an industry. Adoption does. There are established technology companies with enormous customer bases, mature products and decades of knowledge. Those are significant advantages. Our advantage is different. We get to start again. We can work alongside the systems businesses already use today while building for a future in which I believe professional software will increasingly become AI-native.
The bigger picture
ClearPath AI’s raise and Birmingham base illustrate two broader themes in the UK tech ecosystem: first, the continued appetite for AI‑first tools aimed at white‑collar productivity; second, the ongoing push to grow technology hubs outside London. The legal and professional services market remains attractive to both startups and incumbents because even modest gains in efficiency can scale across large firms.
As the company moves from trial phases to commercial rollout, the test will be whether an AI‑native operating system can integrate with entrenched systems and drive measurable adoption in risk‑sensitive industries. The announcement is a reminder that regional founders and investors are still placing early bets on AI infrastructure that aims to sit at the heart of professional workflows in the UK and Europe.
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