government-innovation
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Plexal’s next race: turning startup introductions into contracts
Born on London’s Olympic campus, Plexal grew from workspace into a partner for government technology programmes. Its next test is helping the companies it supports win customers who keep buying.
SOSA puts a price on the right introduction
New Jersey awarded SOSA $2.352 million to help international companies find their footing. From cement investments to public-safety pilots, its business is getting promising technology past the first meeting.
Dubai Future Foundation has a city for your next experiment
A printed office, government-backed pilots and supervised regulatory trials reveal how Dubai Future Foundation works. Its most useful offer to innovators is access to the people who can put an idea to work.
Jay Nath
Jay Nath is Co-CEO and co-founder of Authorium, an AI-powered government procurement and document workflow platform that processes over $50 billion in government transactions. Before Authorium, he served as San Francisco's first Chief Innovation Officer for nearly a decade, where he created landmark programs including Startup in Residence (STIR), Civic Bridge, and Open311 — the nation's first read-write open data standard for 311 systems, adopted by over 50 cities worldwide. Recognized by the Obama White House as a Champion of Change, Nath has spent his career bridging the gap between Silicon Valley agility and the scale of public sector impact.
Sheba Najmi
Sheba Najmi is a Stanford-trained UX leader, civic technologist, and founder of Code for Pakistan — the country's first civic tech nonprofit. Over two decades she has shaped digital products for hundreds of millions of users (Yahoo Mail, LinkedIn, FreeWill) while simultaneously running a parallel mission: using open-source technology to make Pakistani government services work for ordinary people. Her work has served 2.1 million citizens, trained 600 government officials, and opened 6,000 public datasets. In 2024 she received the HUM Women Leaders Award for her contributions to civic innovation in Pakistan.