Electronic signature firm DocuSign has raised $47.5m in funding to help its push into the UK market. The company will also be adding venture capitalist veteran Mary Meeker to its board.
The funding was led by VC firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Accel Partners also contributed to the financing round. Some of the funding will go towards increased investment in the UK.
The company is looking to double its sales staff here as well as open a UK data centre to ensure it complies with EU data protection laws.
DocuSign was founded in 2004 and its technology allows users to add digital signatures to documents, instead of going through the process of printing out a document, signing it, scanning it in and sending it back, the company said. The company said this makes the process more secure, which is particularly useful when it comes to signing legally-binding documents.
The company claims to have 20 millions users who have digitally signed 150 million documents. Its customers include Cisco, eBay, American Airlines, LinkedIn, HP and Yahoo.
"We’re investing in DocuSign because electronic signatures have gone from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘must have’, and DocuSign is the clear global leader in this industry," said Philippe Botteri of Accel Partners.
"We expect DocuSign’s growth to be exponential given the viral nature of their platform and the rapid adoption of mobile devices and tablets which makes DocuSigning that much more convenient," he said.
"This financing demonstrates the value the market places on innovative technologies that drive fundamental business transformation – particularly those with immediate ROI, viral adoption, and nearly unlimited application," added Keith Krach, chairman and CEO of DocuSign.
