AirSlate raises $50 million more to automate enterprise workflows

AirSlate, a workflow automation startup, today announced it raised $50 million in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank. The capital comes after a $40 million round in January led by Morgan Stanley and General Catalyst, and it brings the company’s total raised to $130 million.

When McKinsey surveyed 1,500 executives across industries and regions in 2018, 66% said addressing skills gaps related to automation and digitization was a “top 10” priority. According to market research firm Fact.MR, small and medium-size enterprises are expected to adopt business workflow automation at scale, creating a market opportunity of more than $1.6 billion between 2017 and 2026.

AirSlate launched its first product — a PDF editor — in 2008. In 2015, the company expanded into software integrations for customer relationship management software and apps, followed by an esignature management offering in 2017.

AirSlate’s platform lets customers automate processes using single, no-code solutions. Powered by robotic process automation technologies, AirSlate can help negotiate contracts, facilitate payments and surveys, and get documents signed electronically by generating prefilled pages, sending reminders and notifications, extracting data, and updating records.

AirSlate leverages rules-based bots that integrate with existing services to automate approvals, data analytics, alerts, permission assignment, and data transfer. Customers can’t create bots, but they’re able to request bots for specific tasks from the AirSlate team, with a turnaround time of about a week.

For companies in need of a fully managed offering, there’s AirSlate Business Cloud, which spans PDF editing, esignature workflows, and document process automation. Business Cloud subscribers can author new (or edit existing) PDF documents, create and manage workflows, assign roles, and send out documents for esigning. They also gain access to an online library of over 85,000 state-specific legal forms, including nondisclosure agreements, real estate forms, wills, and customer contracts.

AirSlate counts over 25 million users across over 700,000 customers like the Australian government, Xerox, CBS Sports, GoFundMe, and Amgen. This year, the company expects annual recurring revenue to surpass $100 million.

“In this increasingly remote-work first environment, we are seeing accelerating demand for solutions that empower businesses to design and implement beautiful, personalized, secure, and digitally executable customer and employee experiences,” CEO Borya Shakhnovich said in a statement. “We are thrilled to partner with Silicon Valley Bank to help in fueling our continued product innovation, building out our team, and expanding our global footprint. We believe that airSlate is well positioned to become a global leader in the business process automation, e-signature, and document management markets.”

The Boston, Massachusetts-based AirSlate has around 825 employees. A portion of the debt raise will be put toward hiring, the company says.