The company, founded in 2018, declined to detail how much it has raised.
According to Crunchbase, Esper has raised at least $10.7 million.
Esper did not confirm that figure on Tuesday, but CEO Maleka Momand said that total funding exceeds that amount — even as the company tries to make sure it doesn’t grab more capital than it can handle.
“We’ve been very careful [with funding],” she told Government Technology. “We’ve seen a lot of other government technology companies raise too much money and struggle to grow into [their] valuation.”
In any case, 8VC and Cota Capital led the new investment round, which also included Stand Together Ventures Lab. The capital will go toward hiring, expanding into more state and cities, and product development.
“There’s a huge list of features we want to start tackling and go to market [with],” Momand said, adding that AI is part of that mix.
Esper's government clients collectively serve more than 130 million U.S. residents, with Kanas recently becoming the company’s fourth statewide customer.
Esper also has, within the past year, expanded into “multiple New York City departments, several state health agencies, and other forward-looking state and local governments,” according to a statement from the company.
The new funding comes less than a year after Esper launched a government policy library.
“Esper is tackling one of the most consequential challenges facing America today: ensuring our institutions are equipped to govern effectively in a complex, fast-moving world,” said Joe Lonsdale, general partner at 8VC, in the statement.
Along with the funding, Esper also announced two appointments: Josh Ellars as chief revenue officer and Rich McVey as chief operating officer.
Ellars has leadership experience with government technology companies OpenGov and GovGTM. McVey also held senior positions at OpenGov.
Though Esper had positive cash flow last year, and did so with a relatively small team, the two new hires have the expertise to help the company get even bigger, Momand said.
