BallotReady is a Chicago-based civic technology company behind the nonpartisan online voter guide at ballotready.org - the place you go before you vote. It gives Americans tailored, trustworthy information on every candidate and referendum on their ballot, all the way down to school boards and water reclamation districts, plus tools to register, find a polling place, and make a plan to vote. Through its CivicEngine platform and API, BallotReady also powers voter registration, candidate recruitment, and turnout campaigns for organizations, brands, and nonprofits. Founded in 2015 out of the University of Chicago, it has helped tens of millions of voters and was acquired by Civitech in May 2025.
GovWell builds an AI-native software platform for state and local governments, replacing legacy permitting, licensing, inspections, planning and code enforcement systems with a single configurable, cloud-based product. Founded in 2023 and based in New York, the company says it cuts permit and license processing time by up to 95% and serves well over 100 municipalities and counties across more than 30 states. In May 2026 it raised a $25M Series A led by Insight Partners.
Kaizen (Kaizen Labs) is a New York-based civic technology company building modern, people-first software for America's essential public services. Its AI-native, highly configurable SaaS platform replaces aging legacy systems across permitting, parks and recreation, licensing, transit, payments, and resident engagement. Founded by Nikhil Reddy and KJ Shah, Kaizen partners with local, state, and federal agencies to give residents consumer-grade digital experiences - from reserving a campsite to renewing a license - while restoring public trust in government services.
Manifest is a software and AI supply chain security platform built to answer a deceptively simple question: what is actually inside the software and AI you build and buy? Founded by national security veterans from Palantir and the Pentagon, the company turns Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs) and AI Bills of Materials (AIBOMs) from compliance paperwork into a living risk inventory - generating, importing, enriching and monitoring component data so security teams can find vulnerabilities, track open-source and vendor risk, and prove compliance. Manifest serves mission-critical organizations across defense, government, automotive, medical devices, financial services and healthcare, and counts customers such as the U.S. Air Force and the Department of Homeland Security.
Rune Technologies is an Arlington, Virginia defense software company building TyrOS, an AI-enabled, edge-first logistics platform for the U.S. military. Founded in 2024 by Anduril alumni David Tuttle and Peter Goldsborough, Rune aims to replace the spreadsheets and whiteboards that still run military sustainment with predictive software that forecasts supply needs, recommends transport, and keeps working in communications-denied, contested environments. It has raised more than $30 million and deployed with the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps.
Throne Labs builds solar-powered, sensor-equipped public restrooms that cities and transit agencies deploy on demand. Each self-contained unit pairs a flushing toilet, running-water sink, baby-changing station and free menstrual products with 21 sensors that feed real-time data on usage, cleanliness and maintenance, turning the long-neglected public bathroom into a measurable, turnkey service. Founded in Washington, D.C. in 2020, the company operates across four regions and more than 20 cities and is rolling out restrooms for LA Metro ahead of the 2028 Olympics.
Nikhil Reddy is the co-founder and CEO of Kaizen, a New York based civic technology company building modern, people-first software for America's public services. After stints engineering at Tesla, Anduril, and Archive Resale and a degree from UC Berkeley, he set out to replace the clunky legacy systems behind recreation sign-ups, permits, transit fares, DMVs, and licensing. Kaizen's platform now reaches more than 30 million residents across 17 states and 50-plus agencies, and has raised over $35 million from NEA, Accel, Andreessen Horowitz's American Dynamism practice, and others. Outside the company he runs a YouTube channel with 36,000+ subscribers about life, technology, and ideas.
TurbineOne builds Mission-AI for the frontlines. Its flagship Frontline Perception System (FPS) puts machine learning directly on the sensor at the tactical edge - no cloud, no coding, no connectivity required - so warfighters can detect, identify, and act on threats in real time. Founded in 2021 by Navy veteran Ian Kalin and former Amazon engineer Matt Amacker, the company is deployed across all branches of the U.S. military and reached a roughly $300M valuation with its 2025 Series B.
Garage is an AI-powered nationwide marketplace for America's most essential vehicles and equipment - fire trucks, ambulances, rescue gear and government surplus. It lets fire departments, municipalities and small businesses buy and sell pricey, specialized assets in minutes instead of months by handling appraisals, payments, paperwork, freight, warranty and financing in one place. Founded in 2023 by Martin Hunt and Alaz Sengul, the Y Combinator-backed company operates in all 50 states and has raised $18M.
Polimorphic is a New York-based govtech company building AI-powered software for local and state governments. Its platform pairs a purpose-built Constituent Relationship Manager (CRM) with an AI chatbot, search, voice agents, and automated workflows so residents can get answers and start services 24/7 in 75+ languages - while understaffed agencies cut call volume, automate permitting and licensing, and recover thousands of staff hours. Founded by MIT alumni Parth Shah and Daniel Smith, the company raised an $18.6M Series A led by General Catalyst in 2025, bringing total funding to roughly $28M.
Starbridge is a New York-based AI go-to-market platform built for companies selling to government and education. It scrapes the messy, fragmented world of public sector data - board meeting minutes, budgets, RFPs, contract expirations and procurement records - and turns it into ranked buying signals, account intelligence and auto-drafted proposals so sales teams can find and win deals before the RFP drops. Founded in 2024 by Coursedog veteran Justin Wenig, it has raised $52M total, including a $42M Series A led by Craft Ventures in October 2025, and serves 160+ enterprise public sector sales teams.
Troy LeCaire is the co-founder and CEO of GovWell, a New York startup building an AI operating system for local government - the permits, licenses, and inspections that quietly run a town. Before writing a line of code, he and CTO Ben Cohen cold-called hundreds of municipalities and lined up five paying customers. By 2026 GovWell served 130+ municipalities across 34 states and raised a $25M Series A led by Insight Partners, with zero churn on live customers and processing times cut by up to 95%.
Justin Wenig is the founder and CEO of Starbridge, a New York AI company that helps businesses find and win public-sector contracts. He earlier co-founded Coursedog, a higher-education operations platform he scaled to 300+ institutions before a nine-figure sale to JMI Equity in 2021. A Columbia computer science grad and Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, he raised a $42M Series A led by Craft Ventures in October 2025 and angel-invests in 50+ AI startups on the side.
Martin Hunt is the co-founder and CEO of Garage, an AI-powered marketplace where fire departments, ambulance services, and local governments buy and sell their most expensive gear - fire trucks, ambulances, rescue equipment, and surplus apparatus. A volunteer firefighter at 15 in Delaware who later worked in private equity at Goldman Sachs, Hunt built Garage after a friend in the fire service asked for help unloading old equipment and he found no good way to do it. Out of Y Combinator's Winter 2024 batch, Garage now operates across all 50 states and raised a $13.5M Series A in August 2025, bringing total funding to $18M.
Parth Shah is the co-founder and CEO of Polimorphic, the New York-based company building AI-powered constituent relationship management software for local governments. An MIT-trained electrical engineer and former NVIDIA deep learning engineer, Shah started out trying to build an 'ESPN for politics' and ended up rewiring how town halls answer phones, process permits, and serve residents in 75+ languages. In July 2025 Polimorphic raised an $18.6M Series A led by General Catalyst, bringing total funding to roughly $28M.
Jennie Strobeck is AVP of State & Local Sales, Digital Media at Adobe, where she leads government sales strategy across city, county, and state agencies. With a career spanning enterprise tech sales at DLT Solutions, immixGroup, and Avaya Government Solutions, she has spent over two decades at the intersection of technology and public sector transformation. At Adobe, she previously served as Chief of Staff and Channel Sales Manager before stepping into the AVP role in 2022. She is particularly focused on digital accessibility, helping governments meet DOJ WCAG compliance requirements and modernize document workflows at scale.
Just Appraised builds AI-powered software for local governments - starting with county assessors and clerks. Founded in 2017 at Stanford, the Palo Alto company now serves 300+ counties across 30 states, turning paper-bound deed processing, exemptions, appeals, and constituent services into modern digital workflows.
Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins is the co-founder and CEO of Promise, an Oakland-based govtech company valued at $520 million that helps municipalities and utilities offer zero-interest payment plans to struggling residents. A former union organizer turned labor federation executive turned music manager for Prince, she now runs a platform that has reached 5 million+ households across 20+ states, proving that treating people with dignity is not just ethical — it is a business model. Named #247 on the Forbes Self-Made 250, she built Promise from a YC Winter 2018 bet to a $23 million-funded company generating $33M+ in annual revenue.
Raghuveer Kancherla is the Co-Founder of Sprinto, a fast-growing compliance automation platform that helps SaaS companies earn security certifications like SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, and HIPAA faster and with far less manual effort. A mechanical engineer by training from IIT Madras turned software entrepreneur, Raghuveer previously co-founded and served as CTO of RecruiterBox - a bootstrapped applicant tracking system that grew to 2,500+ customers before being acquired. At Sprinto, he and co-founder Girish Redekar have built a platform trusted by 3,000+ companies across 75 countries, raised $31.5M in funding including a $20M Series B led by Accel in 2024, and grown the team from 6 to 300+ employees. An emerging thought leader on AI governance, Raghuveer is known for his conviction that 'a growing market trumps having a better product' and his systems-first approach to both engineering and team management.
Promise is an Oakland-based govtech company that modernizes how government agencies and utilities collect payments and distribute benefits. Founded in 2017 by Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins and Diana Frappier, it offers flexible, interest-free repayment plans, AI-powered fraud detection, automated benefits distribution, and income verification - all designed to make public systems work better for both agencies and the residents they serve.
Aristotle is a Washington, D.C.-based political technology company that has built the data, compliance, and fundraising software powering U.S. political campaigns since 1983. Founded by brothers John and Dean Phillips, it serves PACs, advocacy groups, and federal campaigns - and, famously, every U.S. president since Reagan.
Authorium is a San Francisco-based public benefit corporation building an AI-enabled, no-code platform that helps federal, state and local governments modernize procurement, contracts, grants, budgeting and legislative workflows. Formerly known as City Innovate, the company has more than $50 billion in public-sector projects running through its software and counts customers like the California Department of Technology and CalPERS.
Ready (ready.net) is a San Francisco software company that builds the platform state broadband offices use to run the federal BEAD program - from application intake and challenge processes to milestone tracking, reimbursements, and NTIA-ready reporting. Founded by Jase Wilson and Mike Faloon, the company turns a paperwork avalanche into structured, auditable workflows so $42B in public money actually reaches the unserved homes it was meant for.
Regina Clewlow is a transportation scientist turned CEO who co-founded Populus, the urban curb and mobility management platform that became the operating system for city streets - helping over 100 cities worldwide manage the explosive growth of scooters, bikes, delivery fleets, and autonomous vehicles. Armed with a PhD from MIT and deep research roots at Stanford and UC Berkeley, Clewlow bridged academia and industry to turn GPS data and curb regulations into digital intelligence for cities. Populus was acquired by IPS Group in November 2025, cementing its place as the infrastructure layer between cities and the mobility economy.
Lucas Hoffmann is a Partner at Outlander VC and Head of Business Operations at HavocAI, a maritime autonomy company. A Wake Forest and Emory Business School graduate with corporate roots at ExxonMobil and Delta Air Lines, he pivoted to venture capital in 2021 and built a pre-seed and seed investing practice focused on AI, SaaS, hardware, robotics, fintech, and govtech. He also founded RiskyBreakfast, a media and content venture, and was recognized as a Siemens National Semifinalist in 2010 for ALS research conducted at Columbia University Medical School.
Marcus Zimmerman dropped out of Stanford two quarters shy of graduation to co-found Candor (YC W25), an AI platform that helps defense, biotech, and energy startups win U.S. government funding. Before building Candor, he led Stanford's DEFCON Tech and National Security Network, served as a Defense Innovation Scholar at Stanford's Gordian Knot Center, and sourced deals as a Venture Partner at GoAhead Ventures in Menlo Park. He sits at the rare intersection of venture capital, national security, and applied AI.
Joe Lonsdale is a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist who co-founded Palantir Technologies, Addepar, OpenGov, and 8VC — a firm managing over $6 billion in assets. A chess prodigy turned PayPal intern turned Peter Thiel protege, Lonsdale built his empire around the belief that the most important companies are the ones governments and defense establishments can't function without. Based in Austin, Texas, he hosts the American Optimist podcast, co-founded the University of Austin, and runs the Cicero Institute — all while backing defense tech titans like Anduril at a $30.5 billion valuation.