OpenGov Receives $4M for Transparency Software
The ongoing NSA surveillance scandal has dragged government transparency into the media spotlight. Public sector organizations are facing increased pressure to share information that can be used to hold officials accountable for their actions, but at present, many lack the tools needed to do so effectively. In comes OpenGov, a Silicon Valley-based firm that helps bureaucrats make their data accessible for the Average Joe. The firm, formerly known as Delphi Solutions, offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that lets municipalities and government agencies transform their spreadsheets into easily readable charts and reports.
This morning, OpenGov announced that it raised $4 million in Series B financing from from Thrive Capital and existing backer Formation 8. The latter participated in the firm’s $3 million Series A round last year alongside Signature Capital, Goldcrest Investments, Founders Collective and a number of high-profile angel investors, including Cypress Semiconductor founding CEO T. J. Rodgers.
OpenGov boasts that its solutions are used by several cities to collect, analyze and share their financial data with residents. The heart of its cloud-based platform is Annual Transparency, an application that can turn several years’ worth of expense and revenue data into interactive web pages with built-in search. The tool is complemented by Monthly Transparency, an app that displays recent financial records, and Transactional Transparency, which provides users with access to an organized list of their municipality government’s purchases.
OpenGov lists the governments of Saratoga, Palo Alto and South Orange Township among its customers.
The government is becoming more conscious about its vast troves of data. A couple months ago, we reported that the CIA’s VC arm made a strategic investment in Pure Storage, an emerging provider of all-flash solutions. More recently, the spy agency contacted Amazon to build it a $600 million replica of AWS.
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