Could this Californian startup, founded four years ago by a Ukrainian entrepreneur, be a potential future legtech leader?
OneNotary has developed an on-demand notarization solution, aiming to revolutionize what its founder Ivan Zinkov calls the “terrible and outdated” traditional experience of notarizing documents.
The startup enables notaries and their clients, spanning both individuals and businesses, to “sign, seal, and deliver their most critical documents securely and remotely.” The company prides itself on offering an online service that is “fast, easy, and affordable for all key moments in life,” with an “on-demand team available 24/7.”
In a competitive market, OneNotary’s solution has been utilized by “tens of thousands of notaries and customers” across various sectors, including finance, real estate, law, healthcare, and government. The company says it experienced a doubling of revenue last year.
OneNotary is now celebrating two significant milestones: the successful completion of a Series A funding round and a strategic partnership with DocuSign.
The $5 million round was led by Jackson Square Ventures, a San Francisco-based investor specializing in software and marketplace businesses, with participation from DocuSign founder Tom Gonser. Additional contributors to the round included existing investors DocuSign Ventures, GoodPaper Ventures, The LegalTech Fund, alongside Ukrainian VCs Digital Future and u.ventures.
The fresh capital injection will be allocated “to accelerate marketing and sales efforts, strengthen partnerships, and further develop OneNotary’s product suite to meet the growing demand for online verification services,” according to OneNotary’s press release.
Digital Future’s founder Oleksiy Vitchenko considers the startup to be “the star” of its prolific portfolio, and believes its partnership with DocuSign will open for it a “completely different level of development.” This Kyiv-based fund took part in OneNotary’s previous round ($1.75 million) in January 2022.
Gonser himself said OneNotary’s growth and evolution “reminded [him] of the early days at DocuSign,” and hailed its “visionary team” poised for “rapid expansion.”
Under plans, OneNotary’s integration into DocuSign’s notary solutions will be completed in the coming months. This move will “expand DocuSign Notary into third-party notaries, providing more opportunity for best-in-class, multi-state certified notary platform options for DocuSign customers,” as stated by the companies.
“Our customers have been asking for a full suite of identity solutions to choose from, including access to a third-party notary network,” remarked Janine Grasso, Group Vice President of Partnerships at DocuSign.
“OneNotary will help us replace in-person, paper-based processes for notarization with their one-line API call and a network of notaries available 24/7,” added Mangesh Bhandarkar, GVP of Product Management at DocuSign. “Completion rates go up for businesses when signers stay in one experience through the whole signing process.”
