(This March 10 story has been repeated without any changes to the text.)

COPENHAGEN, March 10 (Reuters) - Sweden-based legal AI startup Legora said on Tuesday it had raised $550 million at a $5.55 billion valuation in a Series D funding round to accelerate its expansion across the United States.

"Over the past year, the pace of adoption in the U.S. has exceeded our expectations, as leading firms and in-house teams move decisively from experimentation to embedding AI across their organisations," Legora CEO Max Junestrand said in a statement.

* The round was led by Accel and existing investorsBenchmark, Bessemer Venture Partners, General Catalyst, ICONIQ,Redpoint Ventures and Y Combinator also participated. * New investors, including Alkeon Capital, Bain Capital,FirstMark Capital, Menlo Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, SandsCapital and Starwood Capital also participated. * "This funding enables us to accelerate our U.S. growth -investing in talent and infrastructure, strengthening ourpresence in key markets, and ensuring we can support customerson the ground as they integrate AI into their core workflows,"Junestrand said in a statement.  * The company expects to open additional hubs and grow tomore than 300 employees across its U.S. offices by the end of2026. * The company in October raised $150 million, valuing it at$1.8 billion.