Brentwood Associates Acquires Parchment Inc.

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Sawtelle-based private equity firm Brentwood Associates has completed its acquisition of digital academic credentials company Parchment Inc.

As part of the deal, Parchment has also merged with Brentwood portfolio company Credentials Solutions. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Credentials Solutions was one of Parchment’s biggest direct competitors. Brentwood invested an undisclosed amount in Credentials Solutions in early 2018.

The combined business, named Parchment, is the nation’s largest digital credentials service, according to chief executive Matthew Pittinsky.

In addition to raw capital, Pittinsky said Brentwood will provide education sector expertise. “They have a very deep understanding of our field and a very clear prospectus on what the combined companies can do together,” he said.

Pittinsky added that Brentwood’s Credentials Solutions had given it a specific understanding of how education credentials services operate. The new business will supply electronic credentials for 5,240 high schools and 1,500 universities.

It will serve 7,750 receivers across a range of sectors including private companies, certification and licensing boards, as well as university and college admissions offices.

Both Parchment and Credentials Solutions were profitable prior to the merger, according to Pittinsky. New capital from the sale, he said, will be used to facilitate the ongoing reconciliation of the two companies’ operations and grow the businesses’ reach.

This growth will be achieved, in part, through mergers and acquisitions both in the United States and abroad, according to the Parchment CEO.

“We have a bit of a presence internationally,” Pittinsky said, “but we think there are more opportunities to expand [abroad].”

Parchment was founded in Thousand Oaks in 2003 as Docufide Inc. The startup initially focused solely on providing electronic high school transcripts to colleges and universities with products such as Docufide, an online transcript exchange and intelligence platform.

Local angel and venture capital investors, such as Pasadena Angels and Tech Coast Angels, were early backers.

In 2011, the company took on a new group of investors led by Pittinsky. As part of that deal it named Pittinsky chief executive, rebranded to Parchment Inc. and moved its headquarters to Scottsdale, Ariz.

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