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Laurel secures $100 million in Series C funding to expand its AI Time platform, which helps professional services firms automate time tracking and link time data to business outcomes. Backed by investors including IVP, GV, and 01A, the platform is already used by over 100 major firms worldwide. Customers report increased profitability, improved time recovery, and a significant reduction in manual time entry.
$100 Million and Counting: Why Investors Bet Big on Laurel
Laurel announced a $100 million Series C funding round on June 10, 2025. The round is led by IVP, with additional participation from GV (Google Ventures), 01A, DST Global, Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI), Alexis Ohanian, Vladimir Fedorov (CTO at GitHub), Arash Ferdowsi (co-founder of Dropbox), and Hans Tung.
Returning backers include ACME, Anthos, Gokul Rajaram, AIX Ventures, and TIME Ventures, backed by Marc Benioff. The round includes both primary and secondary funding.
The company states that this funding will scale its AI Time platform and support its broader mission to solve the “time intelligence challenge,” which it defines as the persistent inability of professional services firms to link time data to business outcomes. Laurel is focused on building a data foundation that enables enterprises to quantify and understand human capital.
The Time Drain No One Talks About in Professional Services
Laurel is targeting what it describes as the most significant data blind spot in knowledge industries: the relationship between time spent and value generated.
Professional service firms often struggle to understand how their most critical resource—human capital—is spent. While industries like manufacturing and retail track costs and inventory with precision, law and accounting firms typically lack clarity on how time translates into client value or revenue.
According to Laurel, the average knowledge worker is productive for only three out of nine hours in a workday. That gap includes work that could be completed by automation and work that adds little or no value. This inefficiency affects strategic planning, profitability, and the effectiveness of AI deployments.
Meet the AI Time Platform That Does the Heavy Lifting
Laurel’s AI platform automatically records, categorizes, and analyzes how professionals spend their time, reducing the need for manual input. It enables firms to connect time data directly to financial outcomes, optimize billing processes, and determine the most effective points for AI integration.
Key outcomes reported by customers include:
- 28 additional billable minutes per day per professional
- 4% to 11% increase in firm profitability
- 1% to 4% increase in realization rates
- Over 80% reduction in manual time entry
The company processes over $5 billion in gross market value, with $360 million in net-new value generated directly through its platform. Its ROI methodology has been independently audited by a Big-4 firm.
Recommended: Uplinq Secures $10 Million To Power Real-Time AI Bookkeeping And Tax Solutions For Small Businesses
Top Law and Accounting Firms Are Already Onboard
Laurel’s platform is currently in use by over 100 top-tier law, accounting, and consulting firms across the U.S., UK, EU, Canada, and Australia. Notable clients include Ernst & Young, Grant Thornton, Freshfields, and Crowell & Moring.
David Cunningham, Chief Innovation Officer at Reed Smith, emphasizes Laurel’s cross-departmental impact, noting its ability to enhance billing accuracy and client service through enriched narratives and improved time capture.
Matt Newnes, Partner and Tax Transformation leader at Ernst & Young, explains that the technology has redefined their understanding of team workflows. Laurel has helped identify high-performing practices, contributing to broader strategic transformations.
Beyond Automation: Creating a Time Intelligence Layer for AI-Ready Firms
Laurel describes its AI Time platform as the first step in a larger strategy. Beyond automating timekeeping, it aims to build a “time intelligence” infrastructure that makes work itself measurable.
This infrastructure is designed to power future AI deployments by creating detailed datasets on how time is spent across firms. Laurel’s leadership states that understanding the “supply chain of knowledge work”—which contributes to more than half of global GDP—is essential for meaningful digital transformation.
By enabling firms to trace time inputs to business outcomes, Laurel lays the groundwork for predictive staffing, strategic AI investments, and performance optimization at scale.
Why This Moment Matters for the $6 Trillion Professional Services Market
Professional services represent trillions in global economic output, yet firms often lack visibility into how their time resources are allocated or how to price their work accurately. This lack of transparency creates inefficiencies that impact both profitability and client service.
According to IVP General Partner Ajay Vashee, professional services firms are preparing to invest over $1 trillion in AI over the next five years. Laurel’s platform is positioned as essential infrastructure for that transformation.
By capturing time data at the source, Laurel helps firms build a foundation to measure and manage the ROI of their AI strategies. Frederique Dame of GV describes Laurel as an “enterprise intelligence layer” that enables automation, forecasting, and AI-driven workflows.
What Laurel’s Rise Tells Us About the Future of Knowledge Work
Laurel has identified a critical gap in how professional services understand labor, output, and value. Its funding and client growth suggest that time intelligence may become a foundational layer for AI adoption in enterprise environments.
The company’s CEO, Ryan Alshak, outlines the broader ambition to eliminate low-leverage tasks from daily professional workflows by enabling firms to identify what work should be automated, delegated, or optimized.
With billions of hours globally spent on inefficient work processes, Laurel’s approach marks a shift in how knowledge firms prepare for AI-led operations.
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