Sacramento startup Abstract has developed an automated platform that uses artificial intelligence to search and track California legislation, analyze how it could affect businesses and industries, and keep users updated on amendments.
The platform can search by industry and by companies affected, and can show who is in opposition or support of proposed state legislation.
"We use artificial intelligence to make government more transparent," said CEO Patrick Utz.
The Abstract platform allows its subscription users to take notes with built-in version-tracking of bill language, and to communicate with teammates internally or with external clients and organizations, he said.
The platform is intended to help its users track the about 5,000 bills California legislators write each year. There are typically about five versions of each of those bills, with some of their language changing weekly, Utz said. It can be time-consuming and labor-intensive to track all those changes.
The platform allows users to search and set alerts for keywords and classifying phrases to track how businesses, industries and other groups may be affected with every change.
The company's platform gets its data from the California Legislative Information website, and Abstract updates its clients as the California site updates. The state's legislative site is public domain. The value Abstract brings is its search, notification and networking functions. Also, its AI allows it to understand the subject of the bill. With amendments, bills can be totally different in successive versions from the original, so an extra added value of Abstract is its ongoing analysis, search and notification of bills as they are amended.
Customers tend to be government groups, lobbyists, trade associations and nonprofit advocacy groups, Utz said.
The company was founded in Los Angeles in 2020. It moved its headquarters to Sacramento at the end of last year, and currently operates out of a coworking site Downtown and with remote workers. The company has a team of 12 people, two of whom are in Sacramento. It plans to add employees in Northern California.
Abstract has raised $2.7 million since its founding, and it's being vetted to present at the Sacramento Angels investment group.
Subscriptions to Abstract's service cost about $2,020 a year for two seats, with customers able to add more. Utz declined to disclose the company's revenue.
To scale up, Abstract plans to add service in other states, starting with Illinois, Ohio and Michigan, he said.
