From a venture investing perspective, 2014 is off to a pretty slow start locally. So the news of an $85 million raise by DocuSign, a company started in Seattle a decade ago and still with a major presence here, is getting some attention.
Headquartered in San Francisco, DocuSign, which provides electronic signature and document management software and services, is raising the latest funding from an unnamed group of institutional investors. In 2012, it raised a $55.7 million Series D round from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Accel Partners, Comcast Ventures, SAP Ventures, and Google Ventures. Bellevue, WA-based Ignition Partners was among DocuSign’s previous investors.
DocuSign has now raised more than $200 million, with the latest investment made at a $1.6 billion valuation, according to an unnamed source cited by The Wall Street Journal.
CEO Keith Krach says the latest investment will fund expansion of the company’s “digital transaction management platform,” a product with very wide potential appeal.
“Every company in the world is a potential customer,” Krach says in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
He says the company is focused on meeting high levels of security and availability as it expands to new industries including financial services, insurance, and health care. Last year, it made acquisitions and partnerships in real estate.
Krach says the company continues to see partnerships—it has some 500 of them now—as a key method of growth. Last week, it inked a long-term deal to integrate its technology with Microsoft Office.
More than half of DocuSign’s 700 employees remain in Seattle. And, with plans to grow to as many as 1,000 people globally this year, the company is committed to both its Northwest roots and San Francisco headquarters, reports GeekWire.
