Zencity Secures $40m to Accelerate AI To Build Trust in Local Government
2024年6月18日 - 10:10PM
ビジネスワイヤ(英語)
Funding Will Power Advancement of AI Assistant,
Investment in Engineering and Data Science
Zencity Will Further Transform how Governments
Build Trust & Engage Public in Hundreds of Cities, Counties
around US and the World
Zencity, the leading community engagement platform for local
governments that counts 8 in 10 of America’s largest cities among
its customers, today announced a $40m in Series C investment led by
StepStone Group, with participation from existing investors TLV
Partners. This brings the total raised by the company to $91
million, and represents a meaningful increase in valuation from its
previous fundraise.
The new capital will be invested in advancing Zencity’s
artificial intelligence capabilities, including key hires in
engineering and data science, and in enhanced customer service for
Zencity’s local government partners on four continents.
Zencity’s impact comes on the heels of a decades-long decline in
public trust in government, and a recognition that building public
trust requires that state and local governments continually engage
the public, gathering community input on matters large and small.
Zencity’s success has been driven by being an accessible and
effective solution for city, county and agency teams seeking to
broaden their understanding of the views of the public, bring those
insights into their day-to-day work, and communicate back-and-forth
with the communities they serve.
The company has long been a leader in government AI use cases
and was recognized by CB Insights as one of the “100 most promising
private AI companies in the world” in 2022. As the company
continues to execute on its commitment to responsible use of AI in
the public sector, it has also today launched the “Zencity AI
Assistant” - a tool that drastically reduces the effort and time
governments spend gathering and understanding community input. The
new Zencity AI Assistant will:
- Create new engagement projects, survey questions, suggest
images, create landing pages, and automatically translate them into
dozens of languages for maximum accessibility.
- Serve as an analyst and answer questions instantly about data
in plain language, cross-referencing from multiple sources
including surveys and social media, dramatically improving the
ability to quickly draw insights.
- Create charts and reports, and provide written and visual
context for leaders, enabling the seamless integration of community
input in decision-making meetings and other workflows.
This tool is now available in a closed beta to select Zencity
customers, and will be generally available this summer, and the
company is working on several other exciting releases in engagement
in data analysis over the coming months.
“Zencity’s mission is to build trust between local governments
and the communities that they serve. Our new partnership with
StepStone will enable us to set the standard for this important
mission through investment in technology, people, and most of all -
in our partners,” said Eyal Feder-Levy, CEO, Zencity.
“AI-powered capabilities, like the one we’re launching today, put
best-in-class technology in the hands of local government leaders
that will accelerate that goal, by lowering barriers to seeking
community input, and more easily making sense of data we will drive
outcomes for the communities that our government partners
serve.”
"We believe Zencity could be the category leader in public
engagement for the massive government market,” said John
Avirett, Partner at StepStone Group. "Zencity is already used
to support essential functions in cities from New York to Los
Angeles and everywhere in between, and we see a significant
opportunity for Zencity to consolidate this fragmented market by
delivering next-generation, AI-powered tools that will likely
displace legacy solutions over the years to come."
The company recently added the City of New York, Dallas, the Los
Angeles Police Department, and the London Metropolitan Police (UK)
as customers, as well as its first national government agency, the
United Kingdom Department for Levelling Up, Housing and
Communities. The company today serves cities, counties and agencies
in over 40 US states, and covers a global footprint of over 200
million people.
About Zencity
Zencity is a government technology company with the leading
platform for community trust, purpose-built for government. By
putting comprehensive community input tools, sophisticated
analytics, and expert support at their fingertips, Zencity empowers
government and public safety leaders with the data to make more
informed decisions that earn residents’ trust. More than 300
government agencies use Zencity every day, from Los Angeles,
Chicago, and Harris County, TX, to Greensboro, NC, Ft. Lauderdale,
FL, and Colorado Springs, CO. Zencity, founded in 2016, is
headquartered in New York City and Tel Aviv.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240618128164/en/
Michael Simon, Zencity press@zencity.io Or J. Peter Donald,
Arena press@zencity.io