Houston-based Onit Inc., a fast-growing enterprise legal software company, is extending its capabilities in contract management through another acquisition.
Onit has acquired SecureDocs, a Santa Barbara, California-based software company specializing in contract management, electronic signatures and virtual deal rooms, the companies announced Jan. 11. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Onit develops workflow operations and artificial intelligence software for corporate departments in legal, finance, compliance, sales and more. The addition of SecureDocs bolsters Onit's contract lifecycle management (CLM) offerings for legal departments. SecureDoc's software products are used to manage over 13 million contracts and documents in 96 countries, Onit said.
"The acquisition of SecureDocs — like Onit’s acquisitions of legal CLM AI innovator McCarthyFinch and document automation leader Axdraft — furthers our commitment to move the industry forward and provide comprehensive and sophisticated solutions for our customers," said Eric Elfman, co-founder and CEO of Onit.
SecureDocs is the fifth company Onit has acquired in the past 15 months. In late 2020, Onit announced acquiring Aukland, New Zealand-based legal artificial intelligence company McCarthyFinch and Kiev, Ukraine-based document automation firm Axdraft.
In September 2021, Onit announced acquiring BusyLamp, a German firm developing software for legal spending and matter management for European corporate legal departments, and New York-based Bodhala, a provider of legal spending analytics, benchmarking and market intelligence.
With its first acquisition, Onit picked up Mountain View, California-based SimpleLegal, a provider of legal operations management software and an up-and-coming competitor to Onit, in May 2019. SecureDocs will be integrated with SimpleLegal, Onit said.
The SimpleLegal acquisition came not long after Onit secured a $200 million private equity investment from Los Angeles-based K1 Investment Management LLC. Elfman told the Houston Business Journal last year that Onit was continuing to evaluate opportunities to grow through acquisition.
Elfman is a serial Houston entrepreneur. Before starting Onit in 2010, Elfman founded enterprise legal management software provider DataCert Inc. in 1998. He left DataCert in 2008, and the company was later acquired by global information services firm Wolters Kluwer NV in 2014. Elfman was previously an entrepreneur in residence for the Houston Technology Center accelerator.
Onit is one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the Houston region. The company saw its revenue grow by over 212% from $16.71 million in 2018 to $52.24 million in 2020, ranking Onit No. 13 on the HBJ's 2021 Fast 100 List.
