According to a news release Wednesday, most of the investment came from the early stage venture capital firm Good Growth Capital, along with Arcadis, based in the Netherlands, and the startup accelerator Techstars Ventures.
Launched in 2015 out of San Antonio, Texas, Cityflag rebranded as Irys in April as a result of growth and expansion, according to a Medium post by its co-founders. Where it started out helping municipalities create apps for 311, citizen relationship management, community engagement and rental property maintenance requests, the company grew to serve transit hubs and military bases as well.
In the process, its product lineup grew beyond a focus on flagging and tracking citizen service requests to mobile apps and SaaS products for agencies to give and receive other kinds of information from residents. For instance, in April the company released a COVID-related app for citizens to conduct self-screenings and participate in surveys, and then a dashboard for local governments to manage the reports and data they got from the app.
The news release said Irys will use its new capital to market to more municipalities as well as to the military and private sector, and to procure and deploy AI solutions that would improve its existing software for communicating with citizens.
“We believe Irys’ platforms have high market potential, and we are confident they can continue to successfully scale their products throughout the U.S., Latin America and Europe,” said Maureen Boyce, a managing partner at Good Growth Capital, in a statement.
The news release said Irys has also partnered with the U.S. Air Force this year to help military bases address issues with family housing and on-base infrastructure.
