Zuva was spun out in 2021 by Kira Systems co-founders Noah Waisberg and Alexander Hudek after Litera acquired Kira, retaining rights to the underlying contract-AI technology. Based in Toronto, Canada, Zuva closed a $20 million CAD (roughly $15 million USD) Series A led by Insight Partners in September 2021, and has since evolved from a pure contract-data API into a broader AI-assisted legal diligence offering for M&A deal teams.

Zuva offers a contract-data-extraction API and an AI-assisted legal diligence service for sell-side M&A, built by the founders of Kira Systems.

Zuva - AI Contract Data Extraction and M&A Diligence

Zuva Inc.

Not a Full CLM Suite: No drafting, negotiation, or lifecycle-management workflow; it is an extraction API plus a deal-specific diligence service, a narrower scope than most competitors on this list.

Thin Independent Review Coverage: Little presence on mainstream review platforms like G2 or Capterra makes it harder to verify quality claims beyond the company's own case studies.

Founder Pedigree: Built by the co-founders of Kira Systems, one of the original contract-AI companies, carrying over deep domain expertise.

Flexible, Developer-Friendly API: 1,400+ pre-built extraction fields with a free tier and transparent pay-as-you-go pricing, unusual in this market.

Cost-Effective M&A Diligence: Zuva Diligence claims BigLaw-caliber sell-side review at roughly 80% lower cost, with independent benchmarking cited to support accuracy.

<h3><strong style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Introduction</strong></h3><p class="ql-align-justify"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Zuva was founded in 2021 by Noah Waisberg and Alexander Hudek, the co-founders of Kira Systems, after Litera acquired Kira and the pair spun out with rights to the underlying contract-AI technology, backed by a $20 million CAD Series A from Insight Partners. Unlike most products in this category, Zuva is not primarily a full contract lifecycle management (CLM) suite: its core offering is a REST API for extracting structured data from contracts across more than 1,400 pre-built legal provisions, and the company has since layered an AI-assisted legal diligence service on top of that API aimed specifically at sell-side M&amp;A deal teams.</span></p><h3><strong style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Contract Analysis</strong></h3><p class="ql-align-justify"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Zuva's API scans contracts for 1,400+ provisions such as change-of-control rights, non-competes, IP assignments, and exclusivity clauses, and its newer Zuva Diligence service pairs that extraction with ex-BigLaw lawyer review to deliver what the company calls "BigLaw-caliber diligence at roughly 80% less cost," plus a bidder-question management tool that flags duplicate questions across bidders and reuses prior answers during a sale process. Independent benchmarking cited by the company found its diligence review performed comparably to BigLaw firms in a private-equity-backed tech exit, with two Chambers Band 1 M&amp;A firms reporting zero missed contractual disclosures.</span></p><h3><strong style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Pricing</strong></h3><p class="ql-align-justify"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The developer API uses pay-as-you-go pricing (around $10 per document for up to 150 pages) or an enterprise tier (roughly $1.25 per document plus $0.0015 per field/page, with volume discounts and a free tier of 25 files/extractions/classifications per day). The separate Zuva Diligence M&amp;A service is priced per deal, reported at $10,000-$75,000 depending on scope, with a one-to-two week turnaround.</span></p><h3><strong style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">User Reviews and Ratings</strong></h3><p class="ql-align-justify"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Zuva has limited public review coverage on mainstream platforms like G2 or Capterra compared to full CLM suites, likely reflecting its narrower, more specialized positioning as an API and deal-specific diligence service rather than a broad enterprise SaaS product; the strongest available evidence of quality is the company-cited BigLaw-firm benchmarking rather than a large volume of independent user reviews.</span></p><h3><strong style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Verdict</strong></h3><p class="ql-align-justify"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Zuva is not a general-purpose CLM tool and should not be compared directly to platforms like Icertis or LinkSquares. It is a strong, founder-credible option specifically for developers who need a contract-data-extraction API, or for sell-side M&amp;A teams wanting fast, lower-cost diligence review with human oversight; buyers looking for day-to-day contract drafting or lifecycle management should look elsewhere.</span></p>

In-depth 2026 review of Zuva, the contract-data-extraction API and AI-assisted M&A diligence service from the founders of Kira Systems.