According to the Pittsburgh Business Times, LegalSifter received capital from Birchmere Labs and angel investors, CEO Kevin Miller said.

The company, launched in 2013, employs nine. Miller said the money will be used to take product ContractSifter from prototype to market by mid-2016 and to hire software developers. Staff could reach 20 by year-end.

'We use machine learning and natural language processing, AI, to extract information and insights,' Miller said. 'Due diligence is an example of how you might use our technology. That's usually done manually but we help make it faster, more affordable and higher quality.'

LegalSifter already has customers in the Pittsburgh region, but Miller could not disclose their identities.

Miller joined LegalSifter last September from Industrial Scientific Corp., where he was COO, and had worked there since 2007. He earned a law degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Miller was also vice president of Argosy University online programs at Education Management Corp., director of suppler solutions and gobal commercial operations at Ariba Inc. and director of North American sales operations at FreeMarkets Inc.

LegalSifter's co-founders, Lars Mahler and Elliott Williams, are, respectively, chief science officer and chief design officer.