E-signature company DocuSign raises $85 million

DocuSign has now raised a total of $210 million

I wish someone had told me that among all of the perks of being adult, there was going to be one major drawback: paperwork.

Everyone seemed to forget to mention the sheer amount of paper that can so easily accumulate. Credit card bill, cell phone bill, insurance statements, bank statement... in no time it can become an avalanche.

E-signature company DocuSign, which is in the business of eliminating the amount of paper that both individuals and companies have to deal with, has now raised a new $85 million funding round, it was announced on Monday. The funding came from existing investors.

The company had previously raised $125 million in four rounds of funding from investors that included the National Association of Realtors, Google Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, SAP Ventures, Salesforce, Comcast, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Accel Partners.

This round brings its total funding raised to $210 million.

The company says that it will use the money to fuel its growth by innovating its platform, as well as expanding its verticals.

"We are deepening our focus across key verticals including financial services, insurance, technology, healthcare, government, communications, real estate, higher education, manufacturing, retail, consumer goods, and non-profits,"  Mike Dinsdale, CFO of DocuSign, told me.

The money will also be investing in strategic partnerships, and continuing its international expansion to countries including "Brazil, France, and Japan to name a few."

Founded in 2004, DocuSign is an e-signature transaction management company, whose goal is to help every global enterprise, business department, small to mid size business, individual professional and consumer to securely sign anything, anytime, anywhere, and on any device.

It is used by a number of different verticals, including  financial services, insurance, technology, healthcare, government, manufacturing, communications, real estate, retail, consumer goods, higher education and non-profits.

The company now has more than 95,000 companies as customers, millions of users in 188 countries, and more than 40,000 new unique users joining each day. Customers include State Farm, Morgan Stanley, HP, Microsoft, Salesforce, McDonalds, Walmart and Tesla.. The company also counts 10 of the top 15 U.S. wealth management firms as customers, and 11 of the top 15 U.S. Insurance carriers.

The E-signature software and services space is going to be one and it is growing quickly; it grew 48% from 2010 to 2011, going from $111 to $164 million in the U.S. alone. Gartner also projected a similar amount of growth in 2012, which would have put it at $242.72 million.

I spoke to DocuSign CEO Keith Krach last year (prior to him speaking at our Splash SF event in October), and at the time he told me that, essentially, the sky's the limit in terms of how many people could eventually be using e-signature services.

"We see this as really changing the world, and as one of the biggest markets around. Every company is a potential customer, every department, every consumer. Our user base could be bigger than Facebook," he said.

DocuSign has long been rumored to be an IPO candidate. I asked Dinsdale if this round indicated that the company was looking down that road, he said, "For us, an IPO is simply a funding event."

"We are 100% focused on our goal to be a long-term, sustainable company that provides value to our customers, partners, employees and investors for many years to come."

Take a look at Krach's keynote speech from Vator Splash SF here.

Also, Please join us at Vator Splash Oakland this May 6-7! You can register here.

(Image source: mortgageorb.com)