Digital contract management software startup Ironclad Inc. today announced the launch of Ironclad Signature, a “contract-native” contextual signature service with an aim to reimagine how businesses sign and manage contracts.

Ironclad’s first entry into the $25 billion eSignature market, one dominated by the likes of Docusign Inc., Adobe Corp. and Zoho Corp. Pvt. Ltd., Ironclad Signature differs from existing solutions, the company claims. It’s purpose-built with the entire contracting process in mind to provide critical context from the contract lifecycle to deliver transparency and flexibility for users.

Claimed to be the first signature tool built from the ground up to surface relevant contractual information, Ironclad Signature is designed to speed up the signature process by an estimated 80%.

“Electronic signatures have been broken for two decades and completely siloed off from the rest of the contracting process,” said Ironclad co-founder and Chief Executive Jason Boehmig. “Your options were to either create a bunch of extra work to understand what you’re signing or just sign blindly.”

At the core of the new offering is a focus on what Boehmig describes as “giving users the right information at the right time,” which allows signers to connect the dots for a faster, more transparent and secure signature process.

Offered to existing Ironclad CLM platform customers as an add-on, Ironclad Signature’s key features include the ability to gain instant context before signing with summaries and approval history. The service reduces the time spent in confirmation loops with summaries that include 12 key items, including total contract value or key dates and terms, and a full approval chain history that gives users a clear understanding of the contract’s journey to their desk, according to the company.

The service offers flexibility depending on business needs. Ironclad Signature users can dynamically toggle between acceptance options, whether they be a signature or a click, even after the workflow has been launched. Users can also unite rich pre- and post-signature data under one roof.

Ironclad Signature also differs from existing e-signature players by only charging for contracts that get signed, not the ones that don’t. Existing companies charge any time a contract packet is sent out for signature versus when the contracts are signed.

“We found that over 20% of contracts that go out for signature never actually get signed, but most providers still charge for those unsigned signature packets to be sent,” said Will Kolbus, a group product manager at Ironclad. “We wanted to design a cost structure based on the reality of how contracts actually work — understanding that negotiation, or changes, can happen at any point in the contracting process.”

Ironclad is a venture capital-backed startup that has raised $333 million in funding, according to Tracxn, including a round of $150 million on a $3.2 billion valuation in January 2022. Investors include Franklin Templeton, BOND Capital Partners LP, Y Combinator Continuity Fund LP, Emergence Capital Partners SBIC LP, Lux Capital Management LLC, Haystack Management Co. LLC, Accel and Sequoia Capital Operations LLC.

Photo: Ironclad