It’s been 18 years since Paroon Chada started OnBoard in Lafayette, Indiana, while he was still a student at Purdue University. As of June this year, the fast-growing software scale-up company was the leading board management and intelligence platform with its headquarters in Indianapolis, 140+ employees and more than 2,500 customers around the world.

In July, JMI Equity—the cloud software investing powerhouse—announced it was making a staggering $100 million investment in OnBoard to fuel significant growth and product innovation. It’s one of the largest single investments ever in an Indiana tech company, second only to another recent JMI Equity investment.

In August, OnBoard announced it has acquired Toronto-based eSCRIBE Software, another leading cloud-based solution with impressive experience in public sector boards, including municipalities, public administration, and other government agencies. Together the combined company currently employs 180+ people who serve and support more than 3,500 boards and 14,000 subcommittees in more than 30 countries across the globe.

In the near term, OnBoard plans to hire approximately 60 people, many of whom will be employed at the headquarters in Indianapolis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZu9QNbYqvc
WATCH VIDEO: OnBoard CEO talks about $100 million investment from JMI Equity.

The investment comes as board-led companies and organizations have realized that outdated technology, divided communication, and fragmented information flow makes it difficult for boards and leadership teams to engage effectively. The COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted the urgent necessity for digital board platforms that yield increased accessibility, security, collaboration, and enhanced communication, freeing boards to focus more effort and energy on strategic oversight and faster decisions.

“The pandemic showed everyone that the benefits of digital transformation, whether borne of necessity or desire, are profound – and that many boards have been left out of this increasingly important advance,” said Paroon Chadha, CEO of OnBoard. “For boards and leadership teams of any organization, digitally transforming their boardroom ultimately means increased agility and better performance.”

Chadha continued, “The investment from JMI underscores our strong performance, including our work to be the highest-rated board management platform on the Apple App store as well as on G2 and achieving a historic high Net Promoter Score of 79 with our customers. It gives us fuel to accelerate our product innovation, continued investments in AI and analytics, and enhance our customer support, all in service of transforming how boards make more informed strategic decisions.”

The investment from JMI will accelerate OnBoard’s award-winning product innovation and category leadership, fuel organic market expansions and strategic acquisitions, and strengthen continued brand growth – allowing OnBoard to reach more customers and serve the complex needs of boards and leadership teams across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

The announcement follows OnBoard’s continued high performance in 2020 and YTD 2021, including:

  • Adding more than 1,000 new customers from more than 25 countries.
  • Expanding its customer portfolio to more than 600 banks and financial service providers, 700 nonprofits, 250 learning institutions, 100 health care providers, with a good mix of publicly listed, privately held organizations, nonprofits, and government entities.
  • Increasing average in-app user engagement time by 40%, post-COVID outbreak
  • Maintaining Apple App Store’s Highest Rated Board Management Platform
  • Achieving software review site G2’s highest rating awarded to any board management platform of 96 (out of 100).

“This growth investment underscores the strategic need for businesses and organizations around the world to increase their boardroom intelligence and bolster data security,” said Bob Nye, general partner at JMI Equity. “OnBoard’s product innovation encompasses the best benefits of cloud-based software for board-led businesses and organizations: scalability, security and compliance, seamless multi-device delivery, and intuitive ease of use. We’re excited to work with Paroon and the OnBoard team to continue to deliver innovative solutions that enable boards everywhere to be more collaborative, efficient, and strategic.”

As part of the transaction, JMI’s Nye, Partner Krishna Potarazu, and Principal Mac Williams will join the OnBoard Board of Directors. The investment will also enhance operational excellence and performance for OnBoard’s sister solution, OnSemble, a leading employee collaboration platform. OnBoard and OnSemble are products of parent company Passageways, which Chadha founded in 2003.

“My co-workers, early investors like Five Elms and now JMI are valued members of a winning team dedicated to an inspiring mission,” said Chadha. “We are strongly aligned culturally with shared values for transparency, accountability, customer success, and innovation. Gaining JMI’s insights and experience in scaling growth and operations will propel our vision for inspiring and enabling boards and leaders to do their best work, together.”