Ivo Releases Open-Source Contract AI Model Sage
New Zealand-born legal AI startup Ivo has made a bold move by releasing an open-source contract-trained AI model called Ivo Sage. The model, built on DeepSeek V4 Flash, is designed for long, multi-step contract work and is available for free under an MIT license. Ivo, founded by former lawyer Min-Kyu Jung and ex-Xero engineer Jacob Duligall, specializes in contract review and intelligence for in-house legal teams. The company's clients include major names like Uber, Shopify, IBM, Reddit, and Canva.
Ivo Sage achieves a 91% pass rate on individual contract criteria but completes only 16.4% of tasks perfectly. Despite these results, it offers significant cost savings, with a price tag of about $1.24 per task compared to $142 for leading frontier models. The company argues that the next leap in legal AI will come from context rather than larger models, positioning its open-source model as a cost-effective alternative.
The startup has raised approximately $75 million, with its Series B round in January 2026 valuing it at around $355 million. While this is a fraction of competitors like Harvey, which is valued at $15.5 billion, Ivo has carved out a niche in the legal AI universe by focusing on in-house legal teams and breaking contract review into over 400 separate AI tasks.
Ivo's move to open-source its model is seen as a strategic bet to prove the effectiveness of context-driven AI solutions. The company's approach challenges the dominance of larger players, offering a model that, while not the smartest in the room, provides a competent and affordable option for contract work.