Telstra expands into digital signatures service

Telstra has expanded its investment spree into the digital signatures space, sinking an undisclosed sum into San Francisco-based transaction management firm DocuSign.

DocuSign specialises in encrypted document exchange technologies and digital signature document authentication, and boasts 40 million users globally.

It aims to digitise document handling from end-to-end in the workplace - including from mobile devices - and has achieved xDTM, ISO 27001 and SSAE 16 security certifications.

Telstra plans to use the platform internally for a period before extending the service to its business and enterprise customers later this year.

“The workforce is becoming increasingly mobile and the combination of Telstra and DocuSign gives businesses the agility to carry out day-to-day tasks quickly and efficiently on-the-go,” said Telstra Ventures chief Mark Sherman.

The investment will see Telstra become a “customer, reseller and investor” to DocuSign, explained the US company’s CEO Keith Krach.

The move continues the telco’s efforts to boost the security credentials of the portfolio of services it offers to enterprise customers. It comes just months after Telstra bought into two-factor mobile authentication service TeleSign.

In the same 12 months, Telstra Ventures has also invested what is thought to be about $10 million into cloud storage challenger Box and $357 million to buy out Silicon Valley video-streaming service Ooyala in full.