# James Ding

> James Ding is the co-founder and CEO of Draftwise, a New York-based legal AI company building contract drafting, review, and negotiation software for elite law firms. A former engineering lead at Palantir with a computer science degree from Emory University, Ding started Draftwise in 2020 after interviewing about 100 lawyers and concluding that repetitive contract work was ripe for automation. The company went through Y Combinator, raised a $5M seed in 2023 and a $20M Series A led by Index Ventures in 2024, and now serves clients among the world's top-tier law firms from offices in New York and London.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Draftwise
- **Organizations:** Draftwise, Palantir Technologies, Y Combinator
- **Education:** B.S. in Computer Science (Dean's List / Emory Scholar), Emory University
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Draftwise, an AI contract intelligence platform used by top-tier global law firms, Raised more than $25M in total funding across pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds, Secured a $20M Series A led by Index Ventures in March 2024

## Career timeline

- **2011** — Computational medical research at Emory School of Medicine (early role, per secondary sources)
- **2013** — Early engineering roles including a founding/VP engineering position at Likeplum and internships at Juniper Networks (per secondary sources)
- **2014** — Joined Palantir Technologies, eventually serving as an engineering lead for roughly a decade
- **2020** — Co-founded Draftwise with Emre Ozen and Ozan Yalti; joined Y Combinator (S20)
- **2023** — Draftwise raised a $5M seed round led by Earlybird Venture Capital, with law firm Orrick as a strategic investor
- **2024** — Draftwise raised a $20M Series A led by Index Ventures (Martin Mignot)
- **2025** — Launched Markup by Draftwise, an AI contract-review and redlining tool inside Microsoft Word

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Draftwise, an AI contract intelligence platform used by top-tier global law firms
- Raised more than $25M in total funding across pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds
- Secured a $20M Series A led by Index Ventures in March 2024
- Took Draftwise through Y Combinator
- Holds multiple patents in data security, machine learning, cloud computing, and databases
- Grew Draftwise to offices in New York and London with clients among Vault 10 / AM Law 100 / Magic Circle firms
- Achieved ISO 27001 certification for Draftwise

## Latest updates

- **2025-03** — Draftwise launched Markup, an AI contract-review and redlining tool inside Microsoft Word built on firm playbooks and precedents.
- **2024-03** — Draftwise closed a $20M Series A led by Index Ventures to expand its contract intelligence platform.

## Links

- Website: https://draftwise.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamding/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ana3W-GBQb0
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/draftwise/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/james-ding
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-16