Ripcord, the world's first robotic digitization company dedicated to creating a truly paperless workplace, today announced an additional $25M in equity funding led by GV (formerly Google Ventures), with participation from new investor Telstra Ventures and previous investors Icon Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Lux Capital, and Silicon Valley Bank. This increases the total Series B funding round to $65M. Ripcord is also announcing new capabilities on its records management platform, Ripcord Canopy. Canopy 2.0 introduces new functionality including RipcordSync, a batch migration tool, RecordChain, an immutable chain of custody ledger, and a new dashboard that helps users easily manage their record retention policies.
Ripcord delivers an end-to-end digitization solution that uses robots to scan records and make them accessible on Ripcord's cloud platform, Canopy. Once records are uploaded to Canopy, users can search, share, and seamlessly connect records to other enterprise applications like SAP, Oracle, and NetSuite. Co-founded by former Apple and NASA employees, Ripcord provides an alternative to outdated records management systems that are overly complex, require expensive customization, and take years to effectively implement. Ripcord's new technology reduces digitization costs to a fraction of the marketplace's legacy options by achieving better results at 10x the speed. Notable customers include Bechtel, UCLA, Wilson Sonsini, as well as a number of Fortune 100 companies.
"Many companies, especially those that operate in regulated industries, still generate enormous volumes of paper, which is costly to store and cumbersome to manage," said GV General Partner Andy Wheeler. "When Ripcord analyzed why more paper isn't digitized, they found that the culprit is the high cost of scanning. The company set out to solve this problem by developing a highly automated way to scan large amounts of documents, and creating a modern, easy-to-use enterprise cloud management application."
Combined with the increased funding, the company is launching Ripcord Canopy 2.0, which provides a new way to centralize digital records with previously-analog records, greater security with end-to-end chain of custody, and new user interfaces for disposition and retention policy management.
Ripcord built Canopy to make paper files accessible once scanned by Ripcord's robots. Ripcord customers also wanted to simplify how they manage all their records. Most of Ripcord's customers have files scattered across physical and digital storage locations and needed to centralize all their records - both physical and digital - into one single platform. Ripcord is introducing RipcordSync with Canopy 2.0. RipcordSync is simple and enables customers to sync external directories, bulk migrate digital files, and centralize all records within Canopy.
In addition, Canopy 2.0 now has RecordChain, an end-to-end chain of custody feature. From the moment a record enters the Ripcord facility, its movements through preparation, scanning, and digitization are meticulously tracked and logged. Once in Canopy, all subsequent changes and activity related to a record are logged and visualized on a timeline and given an indelible crypto-signature. This creates an authenticated Chain of Custody in Canopy and gives customers the peace of mind that all interactions with their records are being rigorously monitored.
Managing retention and disposition policies is a key element of any records management program. Records management has often been described as, "the art of throwing things away," and so Ripcord Canopy's new dashboard empowers customers to easily identify records ready for disposition. Furthermore, a new responsive mobile design will enable customers to retrieve and share records on the go.
"We've seen an explosion in demand for a solution that drags society from the paper era into a truly digital one," said Ripcord CEO Alex Fielding. "Customers want both digitization and an easy-to-use platform that helps them manage their entire records repository, whether it is comprised of paper files or digital ones. However, building a simple platform is actually quite complex. By partnering with Google Ventures we can take advantage of their expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning. We know their resources will be invaluable."
About Telstra
Telstra is a leading telecommunications and technology company. We offer a full range of services and compete in all telecommunications markets in Australia, operating the largest mobile and Wi-Fi networks. Globally, we provide end-to-end solutions including managed network services, global connectivity, cloud, voice, colocation, conferencing and satellite solutions. We have licenses in Asia, Europe and the United States and offer access to more than 2,000 points of presence across the globe. For more information visit www.telstra.com.
About Icon Ventures
Based in Palo Alto, California, Icon Ventures is a technology venture capital firm specializing in mid-stage investing in companies with great entrepreneurs, compelling business models and strong momentum in their respective markets. Icon Ventures has had the privilege to invest in market-leading companies such as Aster Data, ClairMail, FireEye, 41st Parameter, Infinera, MoPub, Palo Alto Networks, Proofpoint, and Teladoc. For more information about Icon Ventures visit http://www.iconventures.com/ and follow @iconventures �
About Kleiner Perkins
Kleiner Perkins partners with the brightest entrepreneurs to turn disruptive ideas into world-changing businesses. With $10 billion raised through 20 venture funds and four growth funds, the firm has invested in over 850 companies including pioneers such as Google, App Dynamics, Amazon, Flexus Biosciences, Nest, Waze, Twitter, JD.com and Square. Kleiner Perkins offers entrepreneurs years of operating experience, puts them at the center of an influential network, and accelerates their companies from success to significance. For more information, visit http://www.kpcb.com and follow us @kpcb.
About Lux Capital
Lux Capital is a venture firm based in New York City and Silicon Valley investing in counter-conventional, seed and early stage science and technology ventures. Lux manages $1.1 billion in assets across five funds. For more information please visit http://www.luxcapital.com/ and follow @Lux_Capital
About Silicon Valley Bank
For more than 30 years, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has helped innovative companies and their investors move bold ideas forward, fast. SVB provides targeted financial services and expertise through its offices in innovation centers around the world. With commercial, international and private banking services, SVB helps address the unique needs of innovators. Learn more at svb.com
About Ripcord
Ripcord is transforming the $25B records management industry through robots that scan, index and categorize paper records, making them searchable on the cloud and integrated into existing enterprise systems. Ripcord is based in Hayward, California and has raised $49.5 million from leading investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Legend Star, Lux Ventures and Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak.