# Ross McNairn

> Ross McNairn is the Edinburgh-based co-founder and CEO of Wordsmith AI, a legal AI platform for in-house legal teams. A lawyer-turned-operator, he sold his first startup to Skyscanner, then spent five years as CPO/CPTO at TravelPerk scaling it from $1m to roughly $170m ARR. In 2023 he co-founded Wordsmith with Volodymyr Giginiak and Robbie Falkenthal; by mid-2026 the company had raised $100m total, including a $70m Series B led by Highland Europe and Index Ventures, and counts BT, Canva, Financial Times, Sage, Starling and Trip.com among 500+ customers.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Wordsmith AI
- **Organizations:** Wordsmith AI, TravelPerk (former), Skyscanner (former), letgo (former), Law Society of Scotland (member)
- **Nationality:** Scottish
- **Education:** Legal training, Trained as a lawyer in Scotland (Edinburgh)
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Wordsmith AI, one of Europe's fastest-growing legal AI startups., Raised $100m in total funding within roughly two years of founding., $70m Series B in June 2026 led by Highland Europe and Index Ventures.

## Career timeline

- **pre-2015** — Trained and qualified as a lawyer in Edinburgh, Scotland.
- **~2015** — Founded a startup that was acquired by Skyscanner, which became Skyscanner's business-travel product.
- **2015-2018** — Held senior product roles at Skyscanner, leading the business travel product through the run-up to the company's $1.7bn sale.
- **2018** — Served as VP of Product at letgo.
- **2018-2023** — Chief Product Officer, then Chief Product & Technology Officer at TravelPerk, helping scale ARR from ~$1m toward $170-200m.
- **2023** — Co-founded Wordsmith AI in Edinburgh with Volodymyr Giginiak (CTO) and Robbie Falkenthal (COO).
- **2025-06** — Wordsmith closed a $25m Series A led by Index Ventures at a reported $100m valuation.
- **2026-06** — Wordsmith raised a $70m Series B led by Highland Europe and Index Ventures, bringing total funding to $100m.
- **2026** — Wordsmith wins Best Technology Product at The Lawyer Awards 2026.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Wordsmith AI, one of Europe's fastest-growing legal AI startups.
- Raised $100m in total funding within roughly two years of founding.
- $70m Series B in June 2026 led by Highland Europe and Index Ventures.
- Grew customer base to 500+ organisations including BT, Canva, Financial Times, Sage, Starling and Trip.com.
- As CPTO of TravelPerk, helped scale one of Europe's largest SaaS unicorns from ~$1m to ~$170m ARR.
- Founded and sold a startup to Skyscanner ahead of its $1.7bn exit.
- Named Best Technology Product at The Lawyer Awards 2026 for Wordsmith.

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — Wordsmith raised $70m Series B led by Highland Europe and Index Ventures; McNairn plans to scale to 300 employees globally by year-end and expand US presence.
- **2026-06** — Wordsmith wins Best Technology Product at The Lawyer Awards 2026.
- **2026** — Announced as a speaker at Turing Fest 2026 on the topic 'From Zero to Product-Market Fit: What Matters Most in the First 24 Months.'

## Links

- Website: https://wordsmith.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossmcnairn/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/rossmcnairn

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/ross-mcnairn
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-08