DocuSign ropes in $27M to continue domination of electronic signature space

Electronic signature cloud platform DocuSign announced today it has closed $27 million in third round financing and added two key hires to its executive team.

DocuSign creates technology to let businesses to replace handwritten signatures with electronic ones, so contracts can be sent online.

The Seattle-based company had hired Roger Erickson, formerly senior vice president of technology solutions and services at Autonomy ZANTAZ, as vice president of customer success; and Dustin Grosse, formerly sales and marketing general manager for Microsoft’s Field Readiness team and the Microsoft Office Unified Communications Group, as senior vice president, chief marketing and business development officer. Steve King, who the company hired last January and who previously served as an executive at E-Trade, remains the company’s CEO.

DocuSign, which dubbed itself “the fastest way to get a signature”, now says it controls more than 70 percent of the electronic signature market.

DocuSign also conducts data collection, secure document/data storage and retrieval, and real-time negotiation and collaboration tools through its DocuSign for Salesforce, DocuSign Enterprise and DocuSign Realtor Edition products.

All of the company’s products are accessible from any Internet-connected device, including smartphones and iPads, support nearly any document and form, and offer broad user authentication options.

DocuSign also added more security through a partnership with Authentify in June, where users confirm their identify over the phone via a biometric voiceprint.

The company had previously raised a total of $38.9 million in funding from Frazier Technology Ventures, Ignition Partners, Second Century Ventures, Sigma Partners and WestRiver Capital.

This investment round was led by Scale Venture Partners with continued participation from prior investors Sigma Partners, Ignition Partners, Frazier Technology Ventures and salesforce.com.

As part of the deal, Rory O’Driscoll, managing director of Scale Venture Partners, will join DocuSign’s board of directors.