GoDocs gets new CEO, venture capital funding

GoDocs announced on Tuesday that it received an investment from Boston-based venture capital firm M33 Growth and hired Steve Butler to fill the newly created role of chief executive officer.

Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., GoDocs provides a web-based platform to automate legally compliant commercial and multifamily loan closing documents in all 50 states. Butler, who founded AI Foundry in 2015, will take over as CEO after spending the past year as president of Guaranteed Rate’s technology subsidiary Gateless.

The terms and dollar total of M33’s investment were not disclosed but “M33 Growth is a large fund and does not typically invest small amounts,” Butler said in a statement to NMN. “GoDocs is already nicely profitable, so this funding is to significantly scale the business.”

The capital will go toward expanding the platform’s lending types to include lines of credit, business and industrial mortgages. It will also integrate several more loan origination and core banking systems, and grow its sales and marketing teams.

Encompass and LendingQB — now known as MeridianLink Mortgage — loan origination systems are incorporated into GoDocs technology. With only five sales and marketing employees, all located in California, the company plans to add sales people across the country and build a sizable marketing program, Butler said.

Since its inception in 1997, the platform has helped lenders close over 60,000 commercial real estate loans, totaling $80 billion in value, according to GoDocs.

"Our partnership comes at a time when top lenders need to find ways to reduce legal costs for their borrowers and accelerate their lending processes to stay competitive,” Gary Highland, GoDocs founder and president, said in a press release.