How a One-Person Legal Team Scaled Circularise’s Contracting with SpotDraft
of the company uses SpotDraft
contracts executed every year (excluding HR)
Contracts reviewed in a day rather than weeks
Circularise is a Netherlands-based product traceability platform, established in 2016, specializing in compliance and sustainability across supply chains. With Circularise, companies can efficiently prepare for audits and meet regulatory requirements Circularise’s patented technology ensures sensitive information remains protected, providing both transparency and data security.
Circularise, a supply chain transparency startup based in the Netherlands has grown steadily over the years. They are now a 50-person team preparing for their Series B funding round. With more complex legal workflows and an increasing number of contracts, the need for a more organized CLM became more apparent. However, the team only had one legal counsel and limited access to contracting tools. Approvals were slow, visibility was lacking, and business teams were heavily dependent on legal for even the smallest contract updates.
Circularise was using multiple disconnected platforms to manage contracts. Reviews happened in Google Drive, signatures via external tools like DocuSign, and storage was handled manually. Business teams sent contracts over Slack or email, hoping they were using the latest version. There was no central source of truth. This led to misplaced documents, version confusion, and slower execution across the board.
It also made redlining and collaboration especially difficult. Comments and edits were buried across threads and tools, and there was no audit trail to reference. Even minor mistakes, like sending a contract with unresolved internal comments, caused unnecessary risk and friction with counterparties. The system wasn’t built for scale, and the team knew it wouldn’t support their next phase of growth.
“We’d review contracts in one tool, sign them in another, and then store them in a third place. Something always got lost.”
Arzu Hasanova
Legal Counsel, Circularise
With their previous CLM, only a few users had access. That meant every contract, no matter how routine, had to go through legal. Even if someone needed to check a term, retrieve a signed version, or find a renewal date, they had to ask legal. With just one in-house counsel, the delays piled up quickly.
Legal wasn’t just handling approvals and redlines, but they were also fielding every single query across the business. From vendor onboarding to investor due diligence, every team depended on legal for the smallest contract tasks. It created a constant backlog and prevented legal from focusing on higher-value work like compliance, risk mitigation, and deal structuring.
“If I wasn’t available, the process just stalled. People had to wait until I came back online to access even the smallest detail.”
Arzu Hasanavoa
Legal Counsel, Circularise
The approval process lacked structure and visibility. Executives and team leads often received contracts without any context, with no indication of who had reviewed the document, whether legal had weighed in, or whether the content had changed since the last review. This made it difficult to move quickly or confidently.
Without a defined workflow, approvals happened in silos. Some conversations lived in Slack, others in Google Docs or email chains. Legal had no way to ensure that contracts followed the right steps before reaching leadership.
“When I had to get a contract signed, I had no clue if legal had approved it. I’d spend hours just trying to track down the right person.”
Jordi de Vos
Founder, Circularise
Without automation, contract workflows were managed manually. Business teams frequently followed up with legal to ask for updates, request documents, or clarify approvals. Legal, in turn, had to chase down comments, check for status updates, and verify if someone had reviewed a draft. It was an inefficient loop that wasted time and frustrated everyone involved.
Even basic steps like redlining were slowed down by the lack of process. Business teams would upload contracts into Drive, legal would download them, edit offline, reupload, and then go back to Slack to explain what changed.
“I used to ping three or four people just to figure out if a contract was ready to go. The follow-ups alone took hours.”
Jordi de Vos
Founder, Circularise
SpotDraft helped Circularise consolidate every stage of the contract workflow from drafting, redlining, approval, and signature into a single, centralized platform.
SpotDraft helped remove legal as a bottleneck by empowering other departments to work more independently.
“Before SpotDraft, every contract required legal hand-holding. Now, teams create and send NDAs themselves. I only step in when it really matters.”
Arzu Hasanova
Legal Counsel at Circularise
With SpotDraft, Circularise was able to cut contract review time from days to just over 1–1.5 days on average.
“The approval workflows saved hours per contract. I no longer have to message four people just to know if something was reviewed.”
Jordi de Vos
Co-founder at Circularise
By removing repetitive tasks and automating contract routing, SpotDraft gave legal room to focus on high-impact work.
With their legal foundation now streamlined, Circularise is gearing up for even more efficiency. As they prepare for their Series B, the legal team is exploring AI-powered contract reviews through SpotDraft’s VerifAI. The goal? Free up even more time for complex negotiations while letting AI handle first-pass reviews.
SpotDraft will continue to be a key partner as Circularise grows, making sure legal doesn’t just keep up, but stays ahead.
