Some of the more coveted U.S. tech companies have recently shown an insatiable thirst for capital, and given the times, it’s been easy enough to raise. Fast-growing consumer Internet companies such as Uber, Snapchat and Airbnb have all raised huge piles of cash, but another lesser-known company should make that list of heavily-funded tech giants: DocuSign.
The San Francisco-based company, which enables signatures to be collected electronically, has raised another $45 million on top of the $233 million it raised two weeks ago. In all, DocuSign has now raised a total of $278 million as part of the company’s sixth round, and has secured more than $508 million over its 12 years.
The latest injection of capital comes from two strategic partners: Intel and Dell.
The company, which has employees in both Seattle and San Francisco, did not elaborate on the uses of the capital, other than to say that it will help fuel the company’s worldwide expansion. Today, it operates in 188 countries and has more than 100,000 customers. It employs about 1,400 people worldwide, up from 300 two years ago.
Neither Dell or Intel provided specific details about how they will work with DocuSign going forward.
But in a statement, Intel VP Rick Echevarria hinted that a partnership would occur: “We’ve seen the value of the DocuSign platform, and we look forward to integrating our offerings to help our customers worldwide securely transact anything, anytime, anywhere, on Intel-powered devices.”
Dell’s Chairman and CEO Michael Dell was less specific: “We’re excited at the opportunity to help DocuSign achieve its massive potential as it transforms Digital Transaction Management worldwide.”
The additional cash will no doubt give the company’s market value a boost, too. After the first announcement two weeks ago, the company’s valuation increased to nearly $3 billion, according to PitchBook. That puts the company in the same ballpark as ride-sharing company Lyft, enterprise chat company Slack and tech accessories-maker Jawbone.
Last week, a new report published by Forrester Research estimated that the electronic signature market is seeing an average annual growth rate of 53 percent, with transactions estimated to grow from 210 million in 2014 to 700 million in 2017. Still, it’s a small market, said Forrester VP and Principle Analyst Craig Le Clair.
He guesses the annual e-signature market totals roughly $500 million, adding that “if you do the math there’s no way the amount of money put into DocuSign could be justified doing the signature part of the process.”
That’s why DocuSign and others are trying to expand their offerings from just signature gathering to overall document management. Earlier this month, DocuSign explained it raised the money, in part, to pay for future acquisitions and to fuel future growth, which it says will come from document management, or what it calls Digital Transaction Management (DTM).
“These strategic engagements will help bring the power and value of DocuSign’s DTM platform to more countries, companies and customers around the world,” said Keith Krach DocuSign’s chairman and CEO, in a statement.
