Parchment
Parchment operates a cloud-based credential exchange platform enabling K-12 districts, higher education institutions, government agencies, and employers to securely issue, send, and verify academic transcripts, diplomas, digital badges, and professional certificates across a network of 165M+ exchanged credentials.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2003
- HeadquartersScottsdale, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Parchment does
Parchment operates a cloud-based credential management platform that enables the secure exchange of academic and professional credentials — including transcripts, diplomas, digital badges, certificates, and Comprehensive Learner Records — between learners, K-12 districts, higher education institutions, government agencies, workforce organizations, and employers. The platform is built on AWS infrastructure with multi-availability-zone deployment and supports Open Badges 3.0 interoperability plus blockchain-based verification through its Digitary sub-brand, which is reported to reduce credential fraud by approximately 45%. Parchment serves over 5,800 K-12 districts, 6,100 higher education institutions, and 7,300 receiving organizations, with 165M+ credentials exchanged cumulatively across the network.
The company monetizes through two complementary streams: per-transaction fees paid by individuals and institutions when ordering and sending credentials, and quote-based institutional subscriptions licensed to districts, universities, state agencies, and workforce organizations on multi-year contracts. Distribution combines direct enterprise field sales (Book a Demo / Get a Quote CTAs) with self-service ordering for individual learners. Parchment is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Instructure, having been acquired in 2024, and operates sub-brands including Parchment Digitary for international credential exchange and Canvas Credentials for skills-based digital badging. The platform carries top-tier compliance certifications — SOC 2 Type II, PCI DSS Level 1, FERPA, GDPR, CCPA, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, WCAG 2.0 AA, and NIST CSF — making it eligible for the most stringent institutional and government procurement.
Parchment firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Parchment
- Legal name
- Parchment
- Website
- https://parchment.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2003
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Parchment operates a cloud-based credential exchange platform enabling K-12 districts, higher education institutions, government agencies, and employers to securely issue, send, and verify academic transcripts, diplomas, digital badges, and professional certificates across a network of 165M+ exchanged credentials.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Parchment industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Education Credential Management
- NAICS
- Document Preparation Services (56141)
- SIC
- Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Registrar Operations (Records, Enrollment, Grades) (EDALAAAF)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Registrar, Records & Institutional Data Stewardship (EDADAKAE), Certification & Licensing Exam Management Platforms (EDAFADAG)
Keywords
Where Parchment is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Scottsdale
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices4 records
Markets served
Parchment business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Transcript and Credential Ordering (Transaction Fees): Individual learners and students pay fees to order and send official transcripts and credentials through the Parchment platform. Institutions may cover costs for students as seen in Towson University case study where transcripts cover diploma costs.
- Institutional Licensing/Subscription: K-12 school districts, higher education institutions, state agencies, and workforce organizations pay licensing fees to access the Parchment platform for credential issuance, receiving, and management. Pricing is quote-based with 'Compare Plans' and 'Get a Quote' options available.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Quote-based institutional pricing |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels12 records
Parchment product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Parchment operates a cloud-based credential management platform that enables institutions to issue, send, receive, and verify academic credentials including transcripts, diplomas, digital badges, certificates, and Comprehensive Learner Records. It serves K-12 districts, higher education institutions, government agencies, and workforce organizations, while also providing self-service transcript ordering for individual learners. Its sub-brands Parchment Digitary (international) and Canvas Credentials extend the platform globally and into skills-based digital badging.
Product overview
Parchment is a comprehensive credential management platform that enables learners, academic institutions, employers, and government agencies to request, verify, and receive transcripts, diplomas, digital badges, certificates, and other credentials. The platform operates across four major segments: K-12 (Records Management, Award K-12, District Transfer, Cumulative Folders, Document Management, Records Digitization, Diploma Services), Higher Education (Issuing including Transcript Services, Digital Badges, Certificate Services, CLR Services, Verification Services; Admissions & Enrollment including Recruit and Receive; Student Mobility including Dual Enrollment, Course Sharing, and Transfer Articulation), Government (Statewide Initiatives, High School Equivalency with GED and HiSET services, Licensure), and Workforce (Solutions and Industries for professional certification and training). Through its Digitary sub-brand, Parchment offers international credential exchange services across 6 countries. The platform powers the world's largest credential network with 165M+ credentials exchanged, serving 5,800+ K-12 school districts and 6,100+ higher education institutions. Recent acquisitions include Quottly (2023) for student mobility and Scribbles Software (2024) for records management.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Parchment Digitary: International digital credential issuing, receiving, and verification platform serving universities and academic organisations globally.
- Canvas Credentials
Products and services
- Parchment Platform Cloud-based all-in-one credential management platform that enables institutions to issue, send, receive, and verify academic credentials including transcripts, diplomas, digital badges, certificates, and Comprehensive Learner Records across K-12, higher education, government, and workforce sectors.
- Parchment Digitary International credential management platform enabling global issuing, receiving, and verification of academic documents with blockchain-based fraud reduction, deployed across 6 countries including US, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.
- Canvas Credentials Digital badging and credentialing system powered by Parchment and integrated with Canvas LMS, enabling organizations like General Assembly to issue, manage, and verify digital micro-credentials for skills-based recognition and workforce development.
- Scribbles Software Records management and enrollment solutions for K-12 school districts, acquired by Parchment as part of the Instructure merger, complementing Parchment's transcript and credential management platform.
- Quottly Transfer articulation platform used by over 220 colleges and universities to facilitate transfer credits and student mobility, integrated with Parchment's credential management platform to reduce barriers to student success.
- Self-Service Transcript Ordering Direct-to-consumer ordering service enabling individual learners to order official academic transcripts and credentials online for themselves or on behalf of others, with online order status tracking.
Quantifiable outcome
- 99% decrease in response time for Forsyth County Schools
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use Parchment
Customer profileNamed customers11 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
Parchment technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature7 records
Parchment partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- QuottlycoreParchment acquired Quottly, a platform used by over 220 colleges and universities to facilitate transfer credits and student mobility. The integration aims to enhance credential exchange and reduce barriers to student success by combining Quottly's transfer articulation capabilities with Parchment's credential management platform.
Scale indicators10 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Parchment competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- National Student Clearinghouse: The dominant US provider of educational verification, degree audit, and transcript exchange services. Directly comparable to Parchment in the higher education transcript and verification market, with similar institutional customers and federal/state agency relationships.
- Credly: Digital credentialing platform owned by Pearson that issues and verifies Open Badges, certificates, and micro-credentials for enterprises, governments, and education institutions. Directly overlaps with Parchment's Digital Badges and Workforce solutions.
- Accredible: Digital certificate and badge platform used by universities, professional bodies, and training organizations to issue verifiable credentials. Competes head-to-head with Parchment in higher education and workforce digital credentialing.
- Hyland Credentials (formerly Learning Machine): Blockchain-anchored digital credentialing platform acquired by Hyland, focused on tamper-evident academic and professional credentials. Comparable to Parchment Digitary's blockchain verification and digital badge offerings.
Broad incumbents
- Ellucian: Leading higher education Student Information System (SIS) provider serving thousands of colleges and universities. Adjacent to Parchment through registrar, records, and enrollment workflows where Parchment's credentials integrate but Ellucian owns core student records.
- Workday Student: Cloud-native SIS from Workday targeting large universities, managing records, enrollment, and academic data. Represents a long-term risk of native credential issuance within the system of record, eroding Parchment's registrar integrations.
- Canvas (Instructure): Parchment's parent platform and dominant LMS in US K-20. Canvas Credentials and Canvas Badges are powered by Parchment, but Canvas is also the distribution channel through which alternative credentialing features could be developed in-house.
- College Board (BigFuture, MyCollegeQuickstart): US nonprofit administering SAT, AP, and College Board-provided transcript services for college admissions. Overlaps with Parchment in the admissions/receive workflow for higher education institutions and individual learners.
- Coursera for Campus: Major online learning platform issuing certificates, specializations, and degrees integrated with university programs. Competes with Parchment in the workforce and continuing education credentialing segment.
- PowerSchool: Dominant K-12 SIS and now unified classroom provider, owning student records for the majority of US school districts. Comparable to Parchment K-12 in the records management space, and could natively offer transcript exchange.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Parchment social profiles
Digital presenceParchment compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance8 records
Parchment financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Parchment leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles7 records
Parchment subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries2 records
Parchment funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds7 records
Investors6 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Parchment M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A5 records
Investments1 record
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Parchment
What does Parchment do?
Parchment operates a cloud-based credential management platform that enables institutions to issue, send, receive, and verify academic credentials including transcripts, diplomas, digital badges, certificates, and Comprehensive Learner Records. It serves K-12 districts, higher education institutions, government agencies, and workforce organizations, while also providing self-service transcript ordering for individual learners. Its sub-brands Parchment Digitary (international) and Canvas Credentials extend the platform globally and into skills-based digital badging.
Is Parchment a public or private company?
Parchment is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was Parchment founded?
Parchment was founded in 2003. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Parchment based?
Parchment is headquartered in Scottsdale, United States, in the North America region.
How does Parchment make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Transcript and Credential Ordering (Transaction Fees) is the primary driver. The others are institutional Licensing/Subscription.
Who are Parchment's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are National Student Clearinghouse, Credly, Accredible and Hyland Credentials (formerly Learning Machine). Broad incumbents are Ellucian, Workday Student, Canvas (Instructure), College Board (BigFuture, MyCollegeQuickstart), Coursera for Campus and PowerSchool.
Does Parchment have an API?
No public API is recorded for Parchment.
What industry is Parchment in?
Parchment's product category is Education Credential Management. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDALAAAF, Registrar Operations (Records, Enrollment, Grades), with a secondary code of EDADAKAE, Registrar, Records & Institutional Data Stewardship. Its NAICS code is 56141 and its SIC code is 8200.