Startup Stilta Raises $10.5M to Automate Patent Litigation
Oskar Block, the CEO of Stilta, has a passion for solving complex data problems, which led him to launch his first startup at 18.
After gaining experience in consulting and AI integration, Block realized the patent process was manual and slow. This sparked the idea for Stilta, an AI platform designed to automate patent research and analysis. Block teamed up with Tobias Estreen, Petrus Werner, and Oscar Adamsson to launch the startup.
“Reading the same kind of documents, the same way he had for thirty years,” Block recalled, describing the patent attorney's job. Block and Estreen saw an opportunity to create a more efficient process.
Stilta works like a team of lawyers, using AI agents to search for conflicting patents, flag similar properties, and pull filing and court history. The output is litigation-grade, including a report and claim charts with pinpoint citations to every piece of evidence.
Other companies in this space include Solve Intelligence and DeepIP. Legal tech has become a hot sector amid the broader AI boom. Block believes parts of the legal industry are already seeing AI-accelerated change, while other parts may not be ready for it for a long time.
- The analytical work is already being overtaken by AI, but it's still humans deciding the outcomes of cases.
- Many companies are holding on to patents they've never enforced, licensed, or analyzed properly due to the cost barrier.
- Stilta aims to lower this cost barrier, making the patent litigation process more efficient and affordable.
The startup has received a $10.5 million seed round, led by Andreessen Horowitz, with other investors including Y Combinator and operators from companies like OpenAI, Legora, and Lovable. Block believes the question isn't whether the legal system is prepared for AI, but whether companies are prepared for what becomes possible when the analytical bottleneck disappears.