Disclosure: this article covers a third-party company DROZlegal has no relationship with. Every claim below is drawn from named, dated reporting by The Lawyer, Legal Cheek, and Legal IT Insider, checked for this article on September 6, 2026 — not from Robin AI's own statements, which weren't independently verified here.
The collapse, in order
Robin AI raised a $26 million Series B in January 2024, led by Temasek with Revolut co-founder Nik Storonsky's QuantumLight also investing, and was once counted among the UK's most promising legal-tech start-ups.
- October 2025 — a $50 million funding round falls through; the company goes up for a distressed sale. Source: Legal Cheek.
- November 2025 — HMRC files a winding-up petition while Robin AI searches for a rescue buyer, and roughly a third of staff across London and New York are laid off. Source: The Lawyer.
- December 10, 2025 — Scissero acquires Robin AI's managed-services arm for an undisclosed sum; its leadership team joins Scissero, but CEO Richard Robinson does not. Source: Legal IT Insider.
- January 2026 — Microsoft hires roughly 18 former Robin AI engineers into its Word team, stating explicitly it has no plans to acquire Robin AI or its remaining technology. Source: Legal IT Insider.
Why this matters for a firm evaluating any AI vendor
None of that split left a continuity path for a firm running live contract review on Robin AI's platform when it collapsed. Our own vendor checklist asks four questions in writing — training use, retention, processing location, and unsupervised authority. Robin AI's collapse points at a fifth: will this company still exist, under this name, in twelve months? See our full AI vendor safety checklist for the original four.
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A fifth question worth asking, and how to check it
Company durability isn't fully knowable from a sales call, but it isn't unknowable either. Ask how the company is funded, whether it has paying customers beyond pilots, and whether its incorporation record is public. One example: Droz Technologies Inc., the company behind DROZlegal, is federally incorporated in 2011, headquartered in Ontario — independently verifiable, not a stability claim, just a starting point any vendor should offer. For judging a contract-review AI's actual output once durability is settled, see our guide to AI legal document review software.
Bottom line
Robin AI's technology didn't vanish — Scissero picked up its client relationships, Microsoft picked up its engineers — but the product a firm might have bought eighteen months ago no longer exists as a standalone thing anyone can purchase. That's the risk a features comparison never catches. Before signing with any AI vendor, ask the durability question out loud, and ask for an answer you can verify, not just one that sounds confident.