public-interest-ai
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Hazel
Hazel is a New York-based startup building AI-native software for U.S. government procurement. Its platform helps state, local, and federal agencies define requirements, draft solicitations (RFPs, RFQs, RFBs), run market research, and evaluate vendor responses in one place - compressing a process that often takes months into days while keeping agencies compliant. Founded in 2024 by Harvard classmates August Chen and Elton Lossner and backed by Y Combinator, Hazel counts the City of Dallas, City of Atlanta, PhilaPort, and the U.S. Air Force among its early adopters.
August Chen
August Chen is the co-founder and CEO of Hazel, a Y Combinator-backed startup building AI-native procurement software for U.S. federal, state, and local government. A Harvard mechanical engineering and computer science graduate who built wildfire-prevention software at Palantir, Chen now aims his company at the $2.7 trillion public procurement market, helping overworked civil servants draft compliant solicitations in five minutes instead of five months. Hazel counts customers from K-12 school districts to the U.S. Navy and, in 2025, signed the City of Dallas as the first major Texas city to adopt AI for procurement.