In the rapidly evolving world of legal technology, a new dividing line is being drawn: not between firms that use AI and those that don’t, but between those who use it smartly and those who risk it all on unreliable tools. This week, Belgium-based startup Alice firmly planted its flag on the side of smart, secure AI, announcing a €1 million pre-seed funding round led by NewSchool and Seeder Fund.
We’ve all seen the headlines. Lawyers facing sanctions for citing fabricated cases. Judges reopening proceedings due to AI-generated “facts” that were anything but. The promise of efficiency from general-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT has come with a steep, and often embarrassing, price. For a profession built on precision, precedent, and integrity, these “hallucinations” are not just errors; they are existential threats.
This is the chaotic landscape Alice was born into. Launched in June 2025 by practicing lawyers Jeroen Villé and Armin Wintein, along with CTO Joren Coulier, Alice isn’t another AI chatbot. It’s an end-to-end platform designed to mirror the actual workflow of legal casework.