Last
March,
I
wrote
here
about
SingleFile,
a
company
whose
mission
is
to
help
businesses
navigate
complex
regulatory
environments
effortlessly
by
automating
outdated
filing
processes
and
leveraging
AI
technology
in
a
unified
cloud
platform.
Today,
it
took
a
major
step
in
driving
that
mission
forward
with
news
that
it
has
raised
$9
million
in
Series
A
funding,
bringing
its
total
funding
to
$24
million
since
its
founding
in
2019,
including
$15
million
raised
in
the
past
12
months.
The
round
was
led
by
VC
firm Foundry
Group,
which
participation
from
existing
investors
including
Pioneer
Square
Labs
and The
LegalTech
Fund,
as
well
as
law
firms
Wilson
Sonsini,
Cooley,
DLA
Piper, Fenwick
&
West, Perkins
Coie,
and
individual
lawyers
from
the
firm K&L
Gates.
“This
new
round
of
funding
marks
a
significant
milestone
for
SingleFile
as
we
continue
to
revolutionize
the
way
businesses
and
their
trusted
advisers
handle
ever-increasing
and
repetitive
compliance
burdens,”
said
Aaron
Finn,
SingleFile’s
CEO.
The
Seattle-based
company
company
will
use
the
funding
primarily
to
expand
its
technology
platform
and
scale
operations,
with
a
particular
focus
on
research
and
development
to
bring
additional
compliance
capabilities
to
its
platform,
Finn
said.
The
company
has
also
expanded
its
executive
team,
adding
Mindy
Lauck
as
chief
product
officer
and
Teresa
Kotwis
as
chief
financial
officer.
Lauck
has
been
a
CEO
and
product
leader
at
multiple
companies,
while
Kotwis
likewise
has
been
CFO
at
a
number
of
startups
and
established
companies.
Digital
Compliance
Platform
The
company,
which
spun
out
of
Pioneer
Square
Labs’
Seattle
incubator
in
2019,
serves
law
firms,
corporations
and
investor
firms
with
a
digital
platform
for
filing
and
tracking
annual
reports
and
other
state-required
filings.
It
also
offers
entity
management
and
resident
agent
services.
Last
year,
in
anticipation
of
the
beneficial
ownership
filing
requirements
under
the
Corporate
Transparency
Act
taking
effect,
the
company
launched
a
module
specifically
for
CTA
reporting.
The
CTA
requirement
helped
the
company’s
business
pipeline
“blow
up,”
Finn
told
me
last
March.
Despite
current
uncertainty
around
CTA
implementation
due
to
various
legal
challenges,
Finn
said
the
company
continues
to
see
substantial
growth,
particularly
in
relation
to
CTA
compliance.
In
fact,
it
experienced
its
most
significant
growth
since
inception
during
November
and
December,
with
usage
by
law
firms
increasing
more
than
threefold
compared
to
the
previous
year.
“Even
with
the
CTA
uncertainty
that
happened
during
that
time,
it
was
still
quite
a
lot
of
growth
for
us
and
quite
a
lot
of
customers
wanting
to
get
filed
before
that
original
deadline
and
some
just
wanting
to
get
ready
to
file,”
Finn
said
in
an
interview.
He
said
the
company
continues
to
gain
significant
traction
in
the
legal
market,
and
now
serves
more
than
60
law
firms,
including
33
Am
Law
200
firms,
and
more
than
4,000
customers
overall.
One
System
of
Record
But
as
much
as
the
CTA
has
been
a
boon
to
SingleFile’s
business,
Finn
emphasizes
that
it
is
not
its
only
business
or
even
the
majority
of
its
business.
“We
believe
that
all
of
your
information,
all
of
your
legal
entity
information,
needs
to
be
maintained
in
one
system
of
record
so
that
when
information
changes,
it
can
update
any
compliance
filings
that
are
required,”
he
said.
The
company
positions
itself
as
bringing
modern
technology
to
what
has
traditionally
been
a
manual,
paper-intensive
industry.
“The
whole
thesis
of
our
company
is
that
modern
technology
can
help
take
the
manual
paperwork
burden
out
of
this
industry,”
Finn
said.
“We’re
seeing
it
really
blossom
with
CTA,
combined
with
filing
and
registered
agent
services.”
Customers
particularly
benefit
from
the
SingleFile’s
cloud-native
platform,
Finn
believes.
“Because
we’re
using
cloud-based
technology,
it
allows
any
of
the
constituents
that
are
involved
in
these
compliance
filings
to
be
able
to
participate,
while
the
company
maintains
the
data
in
one
place
and
has
that
system
of
record.”
‘A
Generational
Business’
Jaclyn
Freeman
Hester,
partner
at
Foundry
Group,
cited
the
company’s
“sticky
product”
and
strategic
distribution
model
as
factors
in
the
decision
to
lead
the
round.
“SingleFile
has
the
makings
of
a
generational
business
—
a
sticky
product
that’s
delivering
exceptional
value
to
customers,
a
strategic
distribution
model,
and
best-in-class
SaaS
metrics,”
she
said.
The
company
plans
to
use
the
new
funding
to
expand
beyond
its
current
offerings
into
additional
compliance
areas.
Finn
indicated
that
customers
have
requested
capabilities
for
blue
sky
filings,
SEC
filings,
and
business
licensing,
among
other
compliance
requirements
that
are
typically
handled
manually
or
through
consultants.
“We
just
want
to
keep
bringing
more
and
more
of
this
compliance
work
into
our
automation
and
into
our
intelligent
network.”
While
law
firms
are
a
primary
channel
for
SingleFile’s
services,
the
company’s
business
model
typically
involves
building
direct
relationships
with
the
law
firms’
clients.
The
exception
is
in
private
wealth
or
private
client
groups
at
law
firms,
where
the
firms
themselves
become
the
direct
clients.
‘Jurisdictional
Intelligence’
SingleFile
competes
with
traditional
players
in
the
registered
agent
and
legal
filing
industry
such
as
CT
Corporation,
owned
by
Wolters
Kluwer,
and
CSC
Global.
The
company
differentiates
itself
through
what
Finn
describes
as
its
“jurisdictional
intelligence”
—
a
cloud-native
infrastructure
that
helps
legal
entities
registered
across
multiple
jurisdictions
understand
and
maintain
their
compliance
requirements.
“Think
about
all
the
government
agencies
that
have
all
these
requirements
that
businesses
need
to
follow,”
Finn
said.
“…
How
do
we
go
and
take
all
this
jurisdictional
intelligence
and
bring
it
into
one
system
that’s
smart
enough
to
understand
and
compare
and
make
sure
that
any
legal
entity
that
might
be
registered
in
multiple
jurisdictions
across
the
globe
knows
what
compliance
requirements
they
have
to
follow
to
maintain
good
standing.”
Looking
ahead,
Finn
sees
opportunities
to
expand
the
platform’s
capabilities
to
address
the
broader
landscape
of
corporate
compliance
requirements.
He
said
the
federal
Office
of
Management
and
Budget
has
estimated
that
compliance
with
federal
code
paperwork
requirements
alone
creates
over
10
billion
hours
of
burden
annually
on
the
U.S.
economy,
with
a
significant
portion
falling
on
businesses — and
that
figure
does
not
include
all
the
state
codes
a
business
has
to
follow.
“You’re
talking
tens
of
billions
of
hours
of
non-tax
compliance
work
that
has
to
be
done
just
in
the
U.S.
alone
for
hundreds
of
millions
— 40
million
to
100
million
—
legal
entities,”
Finn
said.
“You’re
talking
about
a
lot
of
paperwork
burden
for
a
lot
of
people.”