A startup that counts cities such as Raleigh and Charlotte as customers has closed on $6.1 million, according to a securities filing.
Raleigh-based PublicInput, an engagement platform in the government technology space, raised the equity round from a single investor, California-based Growth Street Partners.
In an interview, Jay Dawkins, who cofounded the firm alongside Graham Stone, said the funder will go toward growth. The team, at about 35 employees today, is adding sales staff as well as leadership roles in customer success and finance.
But the startup’s story wasn’t always one of growth.
When it began, some potential investors actually told Dawkins that pursuing a company in the government technology space was a losing proposition.
“When I first started, [government technology] was an afterthought,” Dawkins said. The startup emerged from issues Dawkins saw firsthand as a transportation engineer with Stantec.
“We were often tasked with hosting public meetings for transportation projects,” he said. “Usually only a handful of people would show up.” And they were the ones with either a financial interest or a big opposition.
“The majority of people didn’t have a strong enough interest in it to dedicate a full hour of their day in person,” Dawkins said. So he cofounded a startup, initially called Cityzen, focused on simplifying ways to engage with the public. Initially, it was public surveys, with the City of Raleigh as its first customer. The platform has expanded “to reach people where they are,” whether it’s in-person, phone, text or email.
In 2017, the firm changed its name to PublicInput, to better represent its full customer base, Dawkins said. Little by little, the market bought in, with the pandemic serving to accelerate adoption of digital technologies even further.
Today, the platform is being used by more than 200 organizations in 35 states. Six departments of transportation and more than 100 cities, including Raleigh and Charlotte, are using the platform to conduct surveys, host meetings and otherwise communicate with communities.
