A local data company aims to make the college admissions process easier for students, and the management of education credentials simpler and safer for institutions and individuals.
Venture-backed and headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., Parchment Inc.’s mission is to “unleash education credentials by unlocking the critical data they embody.”
Through the Parchment.com website, students can request, store and share their transcripts in electronic form. Currently, users can only request transcripts from high schools, and not all the high schools listed have gone live.
Students can also use the platform to research and compare colleges, test their chances of admission, receive private feedback on their college essays, discover recommendations and converse with other users in the discussion board.
Parchment’s SaaS platform, Docufide by Parchment, enables the fast and secure exchange of electronic transcripts among nearly 9,000 schools and universities, six education state agencies and hundreds of thousands of individuals.
Up until its rebranding in March 2011, Parchment Inc. was known solely as Docufide, Inc. and its main service was the SaaS platform.
Mark N. Cohen and Jeffrey Harris founded the original company in March 2002, and Docufide, Inc. formed in June 2003, with tech startup veteran John Reese as its CEO.
The rebranding occurred about a month after the company appointed Blackboard co-founder and former ASU sociology professor, Matthew Pittinsky, as its CEO and announced the relocation of its headquarters from Los Angeles to Scottsdale.
In February 2012, the company announced that it had raised $6 million in its Series C round of financing to fuel its growth, product development, employee recruitment and expansion in the higher education market.
The funding was led by Salmon River Capital LLC, and additional financiers include Blackboard President and CEO Michael Chasen, Novak Biddle Venture Partners and other existing investors.
About a month later, Parchment disclosed that it had reached an expanded partnership with the NCAA. The duo hopes to streamline the transcript exchange and verification process of prospective student-athletes through the integration of Docufide Receiver’s “Transcript Request” technology into the NCAA website.
More info about Parchment
Founded: 2003
# of employees: Not available
Revenues: Not available
Founders: Mark N. Cohen and Jeffrey Harris (Docufide); Matthew Pittinsky (Parchment Inc.)
Funding: $6 Million from Salmon River Capital in 2012
Website: www.Parchment.com
Twitter: @Parchment
Blog: Not available
Headquarters: 6263 N. Scottsdale Rd, Suite 330 • Scottsdale, AZ 85250 • USA