Govtech, or government technology, is a body of technology infrastructure that governments use to manage internal operations and deliver services to its citizens.
Definition
editThere are various definitions of govtech, especially in relation to civic tech.
The Govtech Fund defines government technology is a body of technology infrastructure that "governments use to manage internal operations and deliver services to its citizens. ” Operations and services include various functions such as permitting, pension management, tax collection, and budgeting. Companies in the govtech space are firms that “have state, local, and federal government as their primary market focus and derive the majority of their revenues from the public sector."
According to an Govtech Industry Primer, govtech companies primarily focus on the operations of the city, state, and local governments and focus on technologies that help governments interact better with citizens. The primary customer of the products and services are governments. For example, GovDelivery – a company that allows 1,800 government organization to reach over 130 million people through digital channels like email, text, and social communication – would be considered a govtech company.
According to the E.Republic, there are several categories of technologies under the definition of govtech:
- Administration: The record layer of government, including permissions, data and money. Services or products help increase transparency, processing, visualization and management of records. Category includes systems that automate financial, personnel, case, asset, traffic, construction and land management records.
- Service delivery: The transaction layer of the government. Services or products help processing of transactions, payments and logistics by public employees or citizens/business entities to fulfill public service requests and service delivery. The category would include systems that automate licensing, payments and business intelligence of records. It also includes services that engage with citizens to better deliver government services.
- Smart infrastructure: The infrastructure layer of government enabling operational capacity of physical assets ad systems (e.g., facilities, roads, and utilities) through digital controls, sensors, self-monitoring predictive analytics and security. The category includes smart grid, smart meter and the cloud.
Ecosystem
editThe govtech ecosystem is comprised of governments, companies, investors, and accelerators and foundations.
- Governments: Federal, state, local, and agencies
- For profit companies: Legacy vendors, government contractors, large technology companies, emerging government focused companies
- Investors: Traditional venture capital firms, govtech focused venture companies, strategic investors, impact investors, and private equity firms
- Accelerators and foundations