Some great news to share today! We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the $23 Million Govtech Fund – the first-ever venture fund dedicated to government technology startups.

Govtech startups we invest in build hardware and software tools for governments that are significantly better than existing technologies — built using modern application development practices and technology stacks, inspired from the start by the user’s experience, visually stunning, leverage the cloud, enable seamless transition from fixed to mobile interactions, sold at prices that account for ever-constrained budgets, and without vendor lock-in, endless customizations, training sessions or perpetual maintenance contracts.

We are so proud of the work our first portfolio companies — SmartProcure, MindMixer, AmigoCloud, and SeamlessDocs — are doing building rapidly growing businesses while sharing our mission every day.

A $450 Billion dollar global market, government technology had not historically been the domain of startups. However, in the past few years, a converging of trends including shortened sales cycles, significant departmental budget constraints, government adoption of the cloud, the rise of open data, etc. has created a ripe environment for venture-backable startups to emerge.

And govtech startups are only starting to scratch the surface of the opportunity that lies ahead given that the public sector, in aggregate, is the largest single employer in the U.S. with over 22 Million employees working in 90,000+ municipalities, thousands of state departments and massive federal agencies. We are inspired by transformers within local, state and federal government taking the reins of innovation themselves, but the reality is still that many government departments still operate using custom technology solutions built in the 1980s (!). And the U.S. is not alone – governments around the world have the same legacy technology challenges.

Today marks an important moment for the Govtech Fund.  But it is just that — a moment — one of many in what we see as a multi-decade government technology innovation wave that will make government become more efficient, more responsive and better able to serve society.

Here we go!