ClearPath AI launches in Birmingham with GBP £1 million

ClearPath AI has launched in Birmingham with £1 million in pre-seed funding and plans to create more than 20 UK jobs.

The venture was founded by technology entrepreneur Rudi Kesic and is developing an artificial intelligence operating system for legal and professional services. Its commercial base is in Birmingham, while its technology operation is in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Its product, ClearPathOS, was built around artificial intelligence from the outset rather than adapted from older business software. The company is targeting professional sectors where staff still spend significant time reviewing documents and data, communicating between organisations and moving work through manual processes.

Kesic said the business was designed to work alongside organisations' existing software. That reflects the challenge many companies face as they try to apply artificial intelligence without replacing long-established systems, data and workflows.

"Most business software was designed in a world where systems stored information and people performed the work," said Rudi Kesic, Founder and CEO of ClearPath AI. "AI fundamentally changes that model. Software can increasingly understand what is happening, reason over the information available and participate in getting the work done.

"We didn't start by asking how we could add AI to an existing product. We started with a blank sheet of paper and asked what the operating system for professional services should look like if artificial intelligence was part of the architecture from day one.

"That's what we've built with ClearPathOS."

The planned recruitment drive will cover sales, marketing, customer success, product, design and business operations, underlining a focus on building the commercial side of the business in the UK while keeping engineering in Slovenia.

Regional base

For Kesic, the choice of Birmingham is rooted in both business and personal factors. He grew up in Coventry and has worked across Birmingham and the wider West Midlands for much of his career.

Before founding ClearPath, Kesic worked as a lawyer and later became a law firm managing partner and technology entrepreneur. He has spent more than 25 years building businesses in legal services and technology, and most recently sold a legal technology company in a deal involving Munich-based private equity investor AURELIUS.

That background helps explain ClearPath's focus on legal and professional services, where software providers are under growing pressure to show how artificial intelligence can be used in everyday work. The sector has attracted increasing attention from new entrants and established suppliers as firms look for tools to support research, document review and administrative processes.

"Great technology doesn't change an industry. Adoption does," said Kesic. "There are established technology companies with enormous customer bases, mature products and decades of knowledge. Those are significant advantages.

"Our advantage is different. We get to start again.

"We can work alongside the systems businesses already use today while building for a future in which I believe professional software will increasingly become AI-native."

The £1 million raise came from entrepreneurs and senior industry figures and will be used for commercial expansion, recruitment and continued product development.

Organisations are already testing the platform, with customer, integration and partnership updates expected as the business moves from launch into wider commercial deployment.

Founder's view

Kesic said he decided to start another company after initially believing he would not return to founding a business following the sale of his previous venture. He said his priorities had shifted towards creating jobs and giving more people a stake in the value created by the company.

"I've spent more than 25 years building businesses, and after selling my last technology company I genuinely didn't think I would start again," said Kesic. "I thought that chapter of my life might be finished.

"But once I stepped away, I realised I still wanted to build. What has changed is what success means to me.

"I've been fortunate enough to create wealth through the businesses I've built. This time I want to create that opportunity for many more people - careers, responsibility, ownership and the chance to participate in the value they help create.

"I grew up in Coventry and I've worked in Birmingham for much of my life. This region gave me opportunities, and I want ClearPath to create opportunities here for the next generation."

He also argued that the current wave of artificial intelligence marks a more significant shift than previous software cycles. In his view, newer companies have an opening if they design products with artificial intelligence at the core rather than treating it as an additional feature.

"I've been through a number of technology cycles, but I don't think I've seen an opportunity like this," said Kesic. "AI isn't simply another feature or another generation of software. I think it changes what software is capable of being.

"The incumbents have scale, customers, mature products and years of industry knowledge. We have a different advantage: we're building now, with AI as the starting point rather than something that has to be added later."

Kesic also set out a broader ambition for the company's growth and regional impact.

"AI is going to create some of the defining technology companies of the next decade. I believe we have an opportunity to build one of them.

"I want ClearPath to become a significant international technology company built from here in the UK.

"But I also want the people who build it with us to participate in that success, and I want the West Midlands to benefit from the jobs, investment and opportunities we create along the way.

"If we can do both, that would mean far more to me than simply building and selling another company."