Crocodoc provides an embedded document viewer for PDFs, Microsoft Office files, and other formats that web and mobile applications can integrate to enable document viewing, annotation, and form completion.
Also known as Crocodoc Β· WebNotes
Founders & leadershipΒ· Y Combinator alumni (W10)
Crocodoc was founded in 2007 by Ryan Damico, Peter Lai, Matt Long, and Bennett Rogers.
Investors Β· 9
Also in the syndicate Β· 5
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Crocodoc built web-based document viewing, embedding and collaboration technology for PDF, Microsoft Office and other document formats. Rather than rendering each page as an image β the prevailing approach at the time, which the founders described as slow, low-quality and prone to formatting errors β Crocodoc decomposed source documents and reconstructed them using open web standards: text as HTML, images as Scalable Vector Graphics, and layout via CSS. The result was rendered natively in a browser or on a mobile device without plugins, downloads or desktop software.
The product was delivered to developers as an API and conversion service that could be integrated via iFrame or JavaScript libraries, with a customizable viewer supporting commenting, highlighting, drawing, annotation and form filling. Security and deployment features cited include 256-bit encryption and on-premise or private-cloud storage options. Alongside the flagship developer product, the company operated two consumer-oriented products, WebNotes (a web page highlighting and annotation tool) and Crocodoc Personal.
Crocodoc was acquired by Box in May 2013. Its technology replaced Box's existing document preview mechanism and became the basis of the Box View API, launched in public beta at BoxWorks Developer Day in September 2013. The consumer products were discontinued on November 1, 2015, while the developer product and its Box View successor continued.
Founding story
The company originated as WebNotes, a startup launched from an MIT dorm room by Ryan Damico ('06) with co-founders Bennett Rogers (SM '07), Matt Long ('08) and Peter Lai ('08, SM '09), offering users the ability to highlight and annotate text on web pages. The team grew the venture nights and weekends after graduating and received guidance from MIT's Venture Mentoring Service on market identification and customer discovery. Damico has characterized WebNotes as a failure, primarily because the team could not find customers willing to buy the product; after running out of capital the team entered Y Combinator (Winter 2010 batch). There they concluded that the document-viewing technology underlying WebNotes outperformed comparable technology and was more marketable, and pivoted to Crocodoc over the course of a single weekend, rebuilding the website and shifting from selling to individuals to licensing the viewer to enterprises.
Business model
B2B SaaS and developer platform: Crocodoc licensed its document conversion, viewing and annotation technology to companies that embedded it in their own web and mobile applications, rather than selling directly to individual end users. This licensing model was adopted deliberately after the consumer-oriented WebNotes product failed to find paying customers.
Enterprise API licensing. At the time of the Box acquisition the company described itself as a profitable, fast-growing business generating millions in annual revenue. One aggregator lists estimated revenue in the $1M range, but this appears to be a post-acquisition data-vendor estimate rather than an operating figure.
Traction
Reported metrics include more than 200 million document conversions and 14 million annotations as of October 2013; hundreds of millions of document previews served in the year preceding the May 2013 acquisition; approximately 30% month-over-month growth since 2011; and millions of documents uploaded monthly. By August 2015, the developer product had been used to embed more than 350 million documents and generate over 150 million annotations, while the consumer products WebNotes and Crocodoc Personal had accumulated over 500,000 users and more than 10 million annotations.
Latest developments
The most recent primary-source update is the August 5, 2015 announcement that WebNotes and Crocodoc Personal would shut down on November 1, 2015, with the flagship developer product and its successor Box View continuing to operate as a core part of Box's developer platform. Co-founder Ryan Damico's later profile describes subsequent product roles at Box, Wayfair, Meta and Stripe; Matt Long remained at Box for about two years post-acquisition before moving to PlanGrid and then Y Combinator; Peter Lai went on to Emburse (YC W16).
βΈFull profile β market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Positioned as a specialist supplier of embedded document viewing infrastructure to larger platforms, with named customers including Dropbox, Yammer, LinkedIn, SAP, Edmodo, Blackboard and Facebook. Its acquisition by Box, which at the time reported more than 15 million individual users, 150,000 businesses and 92% of the Fortune 500, converted the technology into a component of a larger content-sharing platform. Aggregator listings cite Smallpdf and iLovePDF as similar companies.
Reconstruction of documents into native browser objects using HTML5, SVG and CSS instead of rasterized page images, delivering higher fidelity and faster, mobile-responsive rendering without plugins or downloads; a simple developer integration path via iFrame or JavaScript; customizable viewer appearance; built-in real-time collaboration tools; and enterprise-grade security and deployment options.
Technology
Conversion of PDF and Microsoft Office documents into open web formats: HTML for text, SVG for images and CSS for layout, allowing documents to render as native browser objects rather than page images. Stated priorities were rendering fidelity, speed and mobile responsiveness. The platform supported real-time collaboration features (commenting, highlighting, drawing, annotation, form filling), 256-bit encryption, and on-premise or private-cloud deployment. A document conversion API and supporting infrastructure were core engineering assets, maintained in part by co-founder Matt Long. The company's public website used tools including Optimizely, Segment, Google Analytics, jQuery, Modernizr and yepnope.js.
Go-to-market
API-first distribution to developers, with integration through iFrame embeds or JavaScript libraries and a customizable viewer. Growth came primarily through licensing deals with large platform customers; the founders noted that after the pivot, large clients approached the company directly. Post-acquisition the product was marketed through Box's developer platform, including presence at BoxWorks Developer Day.
Developers and enterprises building web and mobile applications that need in-app document viewing, preview, annotation and form completion β spanning consumer file-sharing services, enterprise collaboration platforms, and education technology.
Geography
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, with origins at MIT in Massachusetts. Operations were concentrated in North America.
History
Founded in 2007 as WebNotes out of MIT, the company participated in Y Combinator's Winter 2010 batch and relaunched as Crocodoc, focused on enterprise document viewing. An early Flash-based viewer gave way to an HTML5 document embedding product; a 2012 launch of the HTML5 embedding technology accompanied partnerships with Dropbox, Yammer and SAP. The company reported roughly 30% month-over-month growth from 2011 onward and reached profitability. Box acquired Crocodoc on May 9, 2013 in a cash-and-stock deal with undisclosed terms. The team joined the Box Platform group; the View API entered public beta in September 2013. WebNotes and Crocodoc Personal were shut down on November 1, 2015, ending eight years and three products of consumer-to-enterprise evolution.
Risks & controversies
The company's first product, WebNotes, failed commercially β the founders publicly described it as a "spectacular failure" driven by an inability to find paying customers, and the company nearly folded after running out of capital before the Y Combinator pivot. Following the Box acquisition, the WebNotes and Crocodoc Personal consumer products were discontinued on November 1, 2015, requiring users to export documents and annotations and migrate to alternative services. Data across third-party aggregators is inconsistent: one listing states the acquisition occurred in 2014 and another gives a 2010 founding date and lists the company as inactive with $0 raised, contradicting the primary sources.
Compiled by commissioned research from 7 cited public sources β announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed β not independently audited.
Timeline Β· 5
launches, deals, and filingsThe consumer products WebNotes and Crocodoc Personal were shut down on November 1, 2015, as the team focused on integrating Crocodoc into Box's developer platform. The flagship developer product and its successor Box View continued to operate.
Crocodoc announced the new version of its product, the View API, in public beta at BoxWorks Developer Day, bringing the technology behind Box's Preview experience to third-party developers.
Box acquired Crocodoc in a cash-and-stock transaction; financial terms were not disclosed. Box CEO Aaron Levie described it as a successful exit for investors. Crocodoc's technology was integrated into Box's flagship collaboration service and its developer platform.
Crocodoc debuted HTML5 document embedding technology and announced partnerships with Dropbox, Yammer and SAP (cited as a source article in an aggregator profile).
The team entered Y Combinator's Winter 2010 batch after WebNotes failed to find customers, then pivoted over a single weekend to license its document-viewing technology to enterprises under the Crocodoc name.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
βΈResearch sources Β· 7
primary sources listed
- Crocodoc: Embed PDFs, PowerPoints, and other documents into web and mobile apps | Y Combinatorycombinator.com Β· web
7 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Crocodoc do?
- HTML5 document viewing and annotation API for embedding PDFs and Office files in web and mobile apps; acquired by Box in 2013.
- Who founded Crocodoc?
- Crocodoc was founded by Ryan Damico, Peter Lai, Matt Long, Bennett Rogers in 2007.
- Who are Crocodoc's investors?
- Crocodoc's investors include 500 Global, Y Combinator, Bantam Group, SV Angel.
- Who acquired Crocodoc?
- Crocodoc was acquired by Box.
- Where is Crocodoc headquartered?
- Crocodoc is headquartered in San Francisco, US.