Parchment, a leader in the electronic transcript exchange, today announced that it has closed a $10 million follow-on investment, bringing the company total to $45 million raised.
This capital raise was led by global merchant bank The Raine Group, with participation from all of Parchment’s existing institutional investors, including leading venture capital firm Novak Biddle Venture Partners.
The new funds will be used to accelerate Parchment’s development of new product offerings, resources and tools for its expansive network, with a focus on meeting growing consumer demand to collect and leverage more of their credentials.
“Parchment has demonstrated its ability to effectively improve the education technology infrastructure, and its growing network of partners will only enhance its positive impact on the market. We are proud to support Parchment’s ability to answer consumer demand through the development of new services and tools,” Roger Novak, general partner, Novak Biddle Venture Partners said.
Matt Pittinsky, co-founder of Blackboard, leads Parchment as CEO; his extensive knowledge in the ed-tech sector has helped propel Parchment to a notable level of growth. In Q4 2013, the company exchanged more than 1.8 million credentials, and over five million for the year with new consumer registrations reaching nearly 1.6 million-a whopping 90 percent increase. Currently, Parchment’s platform works with more than 5,500 education institutions and organizations nationwide to provide consumers a secure way to request, deliver and verify transcripts online.
Investor Jeff Sine, founder of the Raine Group states, “Parchment’s impressive growth in 2013 indicates that they are resonating with consumers and we are confident that this new round of funding, coupled with Matt’s rich background in education technology, will further expand Parchment’s services to enrich future generations.”
With more funding in hand and rapid growth ahead, Pittinsky looks to bring new jobs to Arizona and encourage more students to use Parchment’s eTranscript tools and services for new opportunities.
“Parchment is proud to be a part of the strong technology sector that continues to thrive throughout Arizona and, more specifically, within the local ed-tech cluster in Phoenix,” Pittinsky said. “This new round of funding will advance our development which will, in turn, allow us to strengthen the economy by creating new jobs and generating revenue for the state. Since 2011, our employee base has increased by more than 300 percent and we look forward to contributing further to Arizona’s economic growth.”
For more information about Parchment and their partnering education organizations, please visit www.parchment.com.
*The $10 million follow-on funding for Parchment closed in December 2013 and also included participation from Salmon River Capital, GSV Capital and ICG Holdings, Inc.