DocuSign is acquiring contract analytics and AI technology providers Seal Software, for $188 million. The acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of DocuSign and Seal, and by the stockholders of Seal, according to a statement by DocuSign. Subject to customary closing conditions, the acquisition is expected to close in the first half of DocuSign’s fiscal year.

The acquisition builds on the existing relationship between the two companies, says DocuSign. DocuSign already resells Seal’s flagship analytics and machine learning application as part of its Agreement Cloud. DocuSign also made an investment in Seal in March last year.

Founded in 2010, Seal’s technology can rapidly search large collections of agreements by legal concepts (rather than just by keywords); automatically extract and compare critical clauses and terms side-by-side; quickly identify areas of risk and opportunity; and deliver actionable insights, said DocuSign.

“As the Agreement Cloud company, DocuSign is about digitally transforming the very foundation of doing business: agreements and agreement processes,” said Scott Olrich, DocuSign’s chief operating officer. “We believe that AI will play a vital role in this transformation.”

Once the acquisition has closed, DocuSign will continue to sell Seal’s analytics application. It will also integrate and leverage Seal’s AI technology to augment DocuSign CLM contract lifecycle management solutions, says the company.

[Image courtesy; DocuSign]