2021 GovTech 100 list highlights key companies helping power local government, but there's still a lot of room for open innovation

Government Technology released its annual GovTech 100 list for 2021 and, while there are newcomers to the list, there is still a lot of room for new innovation.

Despite the rise in civic-focused start-ups over the past years, along with the investment, merger and acquisition activity, the list is still heavy with legacy companies more sophisticated in government sales strategies than delivering modern, cost-effective products to local communities that need it now more than ever. Fundamentally, we're still not seeing a trend towards open values-based companies associated with private ventures powering the future of democracy. This is a conversation that doesn't happen enough in the industry.

Despite that, it is great to see companies like Citibot, CityGrows, CivicActions, EasyVote and, of course, ProudCity, make the list.

One company I think should have made the cut is ProcureNow. What Thao Hill and his team are doing is refreshing -- culturally and technologically -- especially in an area that needs exponential innovation.

e.Republic Chief Innovation Officer Dustin Haisler and Vice President of Research Joe Morris, joined by serial government technology entrepreneur Steve Ressler, hosted a great conversation about the list and general trends.

Government Technology's Noelle Knell has a good summary of the market activity:

Fast forward to 2021, version 6.0, which we unveil for the first time in this issue. Companies on the list have matured alongside the list itself, now averaging 14 years old. Other notable numbers have jumped too: Companies on the 2021 list have raised a combined $3.2 billion. And another indicator that the gov tech market is coming into its own? The number of acquisitions for the 2021 list is 199, more than eight times the total from the 2016 list.  

Government Technology