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CivicPlus Acquires 70-Year-Old Ordinance Compiler Municode

The deal, only the latest in a hot streak for the gov tech market, comes after CivicPlus took on new private equity owners earlier this year. It brings together two companies with a strong foothold in local government.

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CivicPlus, a gov tech company that builds websites and software for local government, has acquired the foremost digitizer of municipal codes.

That would be Municipal Code Corporation, better known as Municode. The company has been around since 1951, when it printed physical code books, and today hosts the codes of nearly 4,000 local governments.

Codes and ordinances are what the company is best known for — indeed, if a U.S. local government offers a searchable version of its codes online, there’s a good chance it’s on a Municode portal — but it has grown to offer a variety of services. That includes website design, meeting management and document digitization and archival.

Much of what the company does is in the same space as CivicPlus — the company made a name for itself by building websites for local government, but now offers software for managing meetings and document digitization. CivicPlus reaches farther, also offering tools for parks and rec, mass notifications, human resources and citizen service requests.

“From our earliest conversations with the Municode leadership team, we immediately knew that we share a commitment to elevating citizens’ perception of local government through positive digital civic experiences,” said Brian Rempe, CEO of CivicPlus, in a press release. “Together, we will leverage the brightest minds in the gov tech space and our incomparably robust and rapidly growing portfolio to serve our over 7,000 combined customers and the larger local government sector.”

The deal comes after CivicPlus took on new private equity owners in Insight Partners, a particularly active gov tech investor of late. The company has been expanding its footprint for years, building out its product lineup largely through acquisitions.

The gov tech space as a whole has seen a uniquely active mergers and acquisitions market this year, with more than 20 deals announced so far.