GovTech Biz

In a year that asked more of government than ever before, the growing and dynamic market of companies working to serve the public sector were partners in innovation, and grew their businesses in the process.

A little more than a year after launch, Cleveland-based CHAMPtitles has enticed some investors as a digital alternative to in-person transactions, a selling point that could gain traction after COVID-19.

Vital Chain, a Cleveland-based startup that uses blockchain technology to create a secure way of digitizing and cataloguing birth and death certificates, is the second of parent company Ownum’s product launches.

Less than a year after its last cash infusion from investors, Ride Report is once again pulling in money. And in the intervening months, the company's customer count appears to have grown quickly.

Three winners will get access to Coord’s software, apps and APIs, and collaboration from the company’s experts, to deliver a project by the end of the year to make local streets and sidewalks safer or more efficient.

We asked five leaders in the gov tech market what they expected to happen in the past five years that did — or did not — come to pass. Their answers offer insight into what ground was gained and where there’s room to grow.

From massive mergers and profitable exits to strong funding rounds and bold new ideas, the last five years have seen major growth in an up-and-coming market. Here’s where gov tech is going next.

Columbus, Ohio, will be the location for the next pilot project from curbFlow, which is an app technology that is intended to better manage busy delivery, pickup and drop-off areas within cities.

With beta testers in the private sector and interested parties in the southeastern United States, Public Bloc wants to encourage infrastructure spending by offering employee-level focus on project accountability.

Governments often contend with many issues when attempting to link public dollars to real-world outcomes captured by data in disparate systems. EY claims its OpsChain Public Finance Manager will reduce those struggles.

Several states have established bodies to study blockchain technology in the past several years. They range from departmental groups with report deadlines to policy groups meant to bring forward bill ideas.

With the privacy and bandwidth afforded by FirstNet, the San Francisco Bay Area software company hopes to create an alternative to body cameras by replacing them with equally secure and more versatile smartphones.

A tech startup created a precise record of every parking spot, fire hydrant and loading zone on more than 100 miles of Philadelphia streets — data that could be a valuable tool for managing street congestion.

The Portland, Ore.-based company has announced new funding to market and expand its SaaS that gives cities in-depth data on micromobility operators on their streets via partnerships with many startups.

Free maps of physical curb assets such as signs, paint lines and fire hydrants are available for neighborhoods in six cities, with more to come. Coord wants this to be a resource for urban planners and others.

Legislation being lobbied for by tech company TransparentBusiness would mandate contractor monitoring to ensure work/time verification. Critics contend it would cause unnecessary security risks to government data.

It might seem counterintuitive, but in the public safety space, tech startup entrepreneurs say that big agencies with big budgets might not be the most innovative. Many like the creativity and agility of small agencies.

As much activity happens on the sides of streets every day, it's not easy to log the features of a curb. So a company backed by Sidewalk Labs — a subsidiary of Google's parent company, Alphabet — is looking to crowdsource the information with a new mobile app.