Following a year of explosive growth, online notary startup Notarize has raised $130 million from investors — including Google’s parent company and Wells Fargo — to fuel its continued expansion.
The round values the company at $760 million, more than triple its valuation of $250 million last March, according to CEO Pat Kinsel. The round brings Notarize’s total funding to $213 million.
“It was clear when Covid hit that there was going to be extraordinary demand for our service,” he said. “What I’m most proud of this year was that we were able to serve the volume.”
The Series D was led by Canapi Ventures, with participation from Alphabet’s growth fund CapitalG, Citi Ventures, Wells Fargo and True Bridge Partners. Prior backers Camber Creek, Ludlow Ventures, Second Century Ventures and Fifth Wall Ventures also took part.
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The company said it will use the funding to expand its platform to new industries and scale its offerings for enterprise clients.
Founded in 2015 by Kinsel and Adam Pase, Notarize is one of several tech companies working to digitize the often clunky analog processes that are still required to close real estate deals, from document signing to title insurance.
In a statement, Neil Underwood, a partner at Canapi who is joining Notarize’s board, called it the “last mile of multi-billion-dollar business models” that promise digital transactions. “There’s massive potential, particularly in the financial services space, as more companies will need to offer secure digital alternatives to in-person transactions,” he said.
Since March 2020, Notarize’s business skyrocketed 600 percent, including an 800 percent jump in its real estate business.
That was thanks, in part, to new corporate partnerships with clients such as Redfin, Zillow, First American, Transamerica, Stripe and J.D. Power & Associates.
According to Kinsel, when Covid hit, Notarize quickly shifted its approach to meet a surge of demand. Instead of manually onboarding notaries to its platform, it rolled out a self-service model. “It was clear this wasn’t, ‘Hey, let’s deal with this for a month,’” Kinsel said. “We had to completely change how we serve the market in order to, frankly, help people complete these transactions.”
Today, Notarize has more than 1,000 notaries on its platform and has doubled its employee headcount to more than 240. In recent months, Notarize has also built up its C-suite: It’s tapped Wendy Ivanoski, formerly of State Street Corp. and Santander Bank, as vice president of enterprise strategy, and Nicole Booth, a former exec at Quicken Loans, as executive vice president of public affairs. In January, it named Larry D’Angelo, a tech veteran, president and chief commercial officer.
Kinsel declined to disclose Notarize’s 2020 revenue, but said it is on track to grow “several multiples” this year. Based on Notarize’s current customer base, he said, the company has a $700 million revenue opportunity at its fingertips,
Across the U.S., 31 states currently allow remote online notarization. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo enacted temporary authorization for remote notarizations last year; there’s currently a bill in the legislature that would make it law.