Cloud storage giant Dropbox Inc. today announced that it has inked a $230 million deal to acquire HelloSign Inc., a document management startup with millions of users worldwide.

HelloSign has raised just $16 million from investors since launching in 2011. That’s a relatively modest amount given the value of the acquisition and the startup’s large installed base. More than 80,000 of HelloSign’s users are paying customers, among them big names such as Twitter Inc., Lyft Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Intuit Inc.

The company is best known for its namesake electronic signature service. It’s an alternative to more established offerings from Adobe Systems Inc. and DocuSign Inc. that offers an permissive free tier, plus advanced capabilities for enterprises. The feature set includes numerous security mechanisms that make HelloSign suitable for signing sensitive documents such as financial filings.

In 2017, the startup doubled down on the enterprise market by launching a platform called HelloWorks. The offering aims to automate manual work traditionally involved in processing forms. HelloWorks enables companies to deliver forms in a mobile-friendly format, set up safeguards to prevent users from accidentally entering erroneous data and then sync the data to the appropriate back-office system.

“Our goal has always been to get as many people as possible using our products, and Dropbox’s more than 500 million users will help us scale our reach and have a bigger impact than we could ever have imagined,” HelloSign Chief Executive Joseph Walla (pictured, far left, next to Dropbox CEO Drew Houston) wrote in a blog post.

For Dropbox, in turn, the deal is intended to help it compete better with arch-rival Box Inc.’s growing array of automation features. Box offers a solution called Relay for automating repetitive tasks such as requesting document approvals and distributing onboarding materials to new employees.

HelloSign’s core electronic signature service is also a big pickup for Dropbox. It will provide the cloud storage giant with a new revenue stream that has strong growth potential: HelloSign added about 30,000 paying customers over the past two years.

Dropbox expects to complete the acquisition by the end of March. Under the deal, the company’s largest to date, HelloSign will become an independent business unit that will continue to operate under the current leadership team.

Photo: Dropbox