Ant Financial invests $92m in Chinese e-signature provider
TSign – a China-based electronic signature service provider – has received RMB650 million ($92 million) in Series C funding led by Alibaba Group affiliate Ant Financial. Other investors include Gobi Partners and Eminence Ventures.
Founded in 2002 and based in Hangzhou, Tsign has expanded from electronic signature services into electronic contract services.
In 2013, it launched a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that offers a one-stop service covering electronic signature, contract verification and archiving, and online contract management and related legal services. This year, a natural language processing tool was introduced to automate business agreements and even track the execution of contracts.
Tsign claims its Series C is the largest funding round in the space in China to date. It follows a RMB150 million Series B in early 2018 led by Shenzhen-based Qianhai Wutong M&A Fund with participation from Tsinghua Holdings-backed THG Ventures. The company's RMB45 million Series A in December 2016 was led by Oriental Fortune Capital. THG also took part. A pre-Series A of RMB10 million closed in early 2015.
Tsign is China's fourth-largest e-signature company with a 7.2% market share in 2018, according to iiMedia Research. The top two players have both received VC investment. BestSign raised a RMB358 million Series C round led by Tiger Global Management in September 2018, taking its total funding to RMB525 million across five rounds. Tiger Global also featured in a RMB389 million Series C for Fadada in March.
BestSign and Fadada had market shares of 35.8% and 18.1%, respectively, in 2018. BestSign merged with 51signing.com – which ranked third on 8.5% – in July of last year.
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