The National Association of Realtors’ venture capital fund, Second Century Ventures LLC, has made an undisclosed "strategic investment" in electronic signature services provider DocuSign.
NAR Chief Executive Officer Dale Stinton — who also serves as president of Second City Ventures — will join DocuSign’s board of directors.
More than 18,000 real estate professionals have used DocuSign’s electronic signature services, the companies said in a press release.
DocuSign is "an ideal portfolio company for Second Century Ventures, and we see huge potential for its fast-growing ESIGN services across the residential and commercial Realtor landscape,” Stinton said.
In an interview before the announcement, DocuSign founder Tom Gonser told Inman News that the company is adding more than 1,000 real estate companies a month, thanks largely to word of mouth.
While financial services companies still make up the majority of DocuSign users, the company has reached a "critical mass" with real estate agents.
"It’s gone from something that’s nice to have to something you have to have," Gonser said.
Since its inception, Second Century has reviewed more than 180 investment opportunities, three of which have been approved by the board to term sheet negotiations.
In addition to DocuSign, one other investment — in ePropertyData, a Commercial Information Exchange (CIE) technology company — has been executed. Other companies in Second Century’s portfolio include previous investments by NAR in Move Inc., zipLogix and SentriLock.
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