2018 GovTech 100: Raising the Profile

How Technology is Changing State and Local Government

America knows about Internet-connected juice machines that squeeze bags with roughly the strength of a pair of human hands, and salt shakers that also play music, and smart door locks that may not open if a software update goes wrong. This is the world of big tech investment, where a company with a zany idea may flare up and fizzle out or it may hit the stock market at a billion-dollar value.

Is there room in that world for technology that helps city hall update its application forms?

It’s beginning to look like the answer is yes. In the past several years, the ecosystem of government-serving technology companies has seen an undeniable rise in financing activity, and it’s been taking many forms: bigger deals, more investors, more companies, new ideas.

There are many possible explanations for why. State and local governments have become more willing to try implementing new systems using agile methodologies that fit better with the modern tech world. They are striking up pilot projects and demonstration agreements that let them try out new ideas before taking the kind of big-dollar risks that government is not amenable to taking. The rise of cloud computing has created an environment where small companies are better able to build products that can work for public agencies big and small.

Regardless of why, things are changing in the gov tech space. That’s why Government Technology has, for three years now, put out a list of 100 companies serving government in unique, innovative, effective ways. When the first GovTech 100 list came out in 2016, e.Republic Chief Innovation Officer Dustin Haisler — heavily involved in the list’s creation — saw that many of the investors involved in the companies seemed like they were “experimenting around the edges.” They would invest in one gov tech company to see how it would go.

Things look quite a bit different these days.

Haisler said:

“It’s no longer a test bed, it’s really starting to blossom into something that investors are more comfortable with.”

Gov tech, with its emphasis on speeding up administrative functions and digging into old data sets, might not hold the national fascination like the gadgets America just unboxed for Christmas. But it’s growing.

Now, what will that mean for government?

Find out at GovTech.com/100.