Mass arbitration, a legal mechanism that lets consumers pursue individual claims when companies block class actions, is getting a major financial boost. Chariot Claims, a New York-based startup founded by CEO Zim Hang, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Silverton Partners to help consumers challenge hidden fees, unwanted subscriptions and alleged privacy violations.

What You Need to Know

Chariot Claims works with law firms to identify potential cases, find affected consumers and gather information needed to pursue compensation. The company typically receives more than 200,000 claim submissions per month and has taken on roughly 80 cases since shifting to its current business model just over a year ago. The round brings total funding to $15.7 million, including a $3.6 million seed investment in April 2025. Legal tech funding hit a record $4.6 billion last year and has already surpassed $3 billion so far this year.

How Chariot Claims Operates

For each case, consumers complete an intake questionnaire that assesses preliminary eligibility in real time. Chariot's team then reviews these pre-qualified claims through a multi-layered system of technology and human oversight before sending them to the partner law firm handling the case.

The company has about 15 employees and is currently breaking even. It plans to spend the new funding primarily on hiring and product development, including AI tools to review cases and help determine whether consumers qualify to participate.

Chariot handles parts of the administrative work, while its partner firms handle the legal claims. The startup charges the firms flat service fees, and they work on a contingency basis. Hang emphasizes that since it's not a law firm, Chariot itself doesn't file claims.

Why This Matters

The rise of mass arbitration represents a fundamental shift in how consumer disputes get resolved. Companies that once relied on arbitration clauses to quietly kill class actions now face thousands of individual claims that can be far more expensive to defend.

For consumers, this means a realistic path to compensation for practices that were previously too small to litigate individually but too widespread to ignore collectively. The model also pressures businesses to reconsider contract terms that bury fees or lock customers into subscriptions.

Legal experts say the approach could reshape corporate risk calculations across industries, from streaming services to fitness apps to e-commerce platforms.

The Surge in Legal Tech Investment

Chariot's latest round comes amid a surge in investment across legal tech. Funding to the legal tech space hit a record high last year, with $4.6 billion invested, per Crunchbase data. So far this year, legal tech startups have pulled in more than $3 billion, putting the sector on pace to match or exceed the 2025 total.

Investors participating in the round include Indicator Ventures, Lightbank, Neon Fund, ZVC, Rosecliff Ventures, Alumni Ventures, FJ Labs, Graph Ventures and Vermilion Ventures.

From Sleep Research to Legal Tech

Chariot is Hang's third startup. His first company grew out of sleep research he conducted while studying psychology and neuroscience at Washington University. He turned that research into a smart-pillow business and later sold its intellectual property to a medical-device operator.

He later worked in healthcare technology and fintech, founded a startup in the Web3 space, and then moved into legal technology. Across those industries, he said, he encountered complicated systems in which the interests of businesses and their customers did not always align.

His experience helping the class-action settlement startup brought those concerns into focus. He described being "frustrated and mystified and horrified by how our justice system works."

What You Need to Know About Mass Arbitration

Mass arbitration allows consumers to pursue individual claims when companies' contracts prevent customers from joining class actions. Relatively few law firms were set up to manage thousands of those claims at once, creating a gap that Chariot aims to fill.

Chariot started about three years ago, adopting its current model after Hang saw an opportunity to help law firms handle mass arbitration. Firms accustomed to class actions could struggle with the work required to manage large numbers of individual claimants, he said.

"It's just really inefficient for them to try to build workflows around 10,000 claimants or 100,000 claimants," Hang said.

Key Numbers Behind Chariot's Growth

$10M

Series A funding

200,000+

Monthly claim submissions

$15.7M

Total funding to date

The company's trajectory reflects broader momentum in legal tech. With 80 cases handled in just over a year and a break-even operation, Chariot is positioning itself as infrastructure for a legal strategy that many firms are only beginning to understand.

What This Means for Consumers and Businesses

Consumers gain a streamlined way to pursue claims that might otherwise go unaddressed. The intake process assesses eligibility in real time, reducing friction for individuals who suspect they have been overcharged or misled.

Businesses, however, face a new calculus. Mass arbitration can turn a single disputed practice into thousands of separate proceedings, each carrying its own costs and reputational risk.

The outcome depends on how courts and arbitrators handle these claims at scale. For now, Chariot's funding signals that investors see mass arbitration as a durable market, not a passing trend.