DocuSign acquires ‘smart agreements’ startup Clause

Electronic documents pioneer DocuSign this afternoon announced it will acquire intellectual property assets, and some staff members, of five-year-old, New York City-based Clause, a company in what are known as "smart agreements."

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

The technology will be integrated into what DocuSign calls its Agreement Cloud platform. DocuSign has put funding into Clause's Series A venture backing, and the two had an existing partnership.

Clause, said DocuSign, "has built a smart agreement platform that enables and automates […] actions […] such as sending notifications, running compliance checks, and sending contract status updates."

Added DocuSign, "Its products already integrate tightly with DocuSign eSignature, and we're exploring deeper connections to contract lifecycle management (CLM) too. 

In addition, Clause's experience developing specific solutions for financial services, insurance, and healthcare companies complements the way the Agreement Cloud helps many of our customers." DocuSign defines the smart agreement as an electronic contract that can have interactive elements, such as making sure that a bank account linked to a contract is the right account.

In a blog post, Clause's CEO, Peter Hunn, explained, 

The opportunity in front of us is to deliver Smart Agreements to the world, leveraging best-in-class eSignature and CLM products, as part of one of the largest tech companies. The Clause team will continue our work within DocuSign to deliver on our shared vision for smart agreements—a development that will fundamentally change the future of contracts, just like word processing and eSignature.

Clause has received $12.54 million in funding in four rounds since 2017, according to FactSet.