HelloSign, the eSignature platform, is announcing a $16 million financing round led by Foundry Group and Zach Coelius. Greylock Partners, U.S. Venture Partners and Tien Tzuo also participated.
Although the San Francisco-based company has been around since 2010, they are calling it a Series B, since they’ve raised little outside capital. The business is cash flow positive and it’s a “funding round that we did not need to take,” insisted COO Whitney Bouck. But they welcomed the opportunity for Ryan McIntyre from Foundry Group to join their board of directors.
The Docusign and Adobe Sign competitor has convinced 55,000 companies to pay for its services on a subscription basis. They estimate that they have over seven million users on the platform, which includes consumers who utilize the basic features for free.
The “freemium product” makes it a “very low barrier to entry,” CEO Joseph Walla told TechCrunch. “Anyone can go and use us for up to three documents per month.” He compared the experience to Box and Dropbox.
In addition to signing and sharing documents, they recently introduced HelloWorks, which turns PDF forms into easy-to-edit digital files.
“The API is really our primary focus,” said Bouck. She said they want to be “the Twilio or Stripe of eSignature.”
Ryan McIntyre from Foundry Group said they invested in HelloSign because “they’ve managed to do very much with very little, and that’s a sweet spot for us. We believe that the market for eSignature is in a position to grow exponentially and it’s clear that HelloSign is in an excellent position to lead the charge. They’re lean, mean, and incredibly innovative.”