GovDelivery Signs a Deal to Be Acquired by a Group led by Vista Equity Partners… Why it Matters.

GovDelivery had a major announcement this morning. A group led by the top technology investor in the world has signed a deal to acquire our company. This is incredible validation for the opportunity to continue growing a unique company that creates value for the public, our government customers, employees, and investors. This matters because scale is truly important in our market and it has become more important in recent years.

Scale Matters Because We Must Invest in Security & Innovation Together

In recent years, we’ve grown our security investments by 500 percent while more than doubling our R&D team. Why? Because our clients need secure solutions meeting FedRAMP, ISO 27001 and other high standards while remaining accessible and fast. Our clients also need solutions that continue to improve functionally and leverage the newest technologies for impact.

When I co-founded GovDelivery in 2000 in a basement apartment in St. Paul, MN, I was filled with optimism. I thought it was the middle of the dotcom boom (it was actually quite near the end), and I believed government was ready to accept new kinds of innovative technology solutions delivered through the Cloud.

When the dotcom boom busted, GovDelivery became more pragmatic. We grew in increments, listened to clients, adjusted our approach, and became a more traditional, slower growth, company easing our way up to the point where we could serve large local, state, and central governments by 2004.

Beginning in 2004, our growth accelerated as we became the leader in delivering a purpose-built digital communication platform to our government clients. It started with functionality and expanded to include the GovDelivery Network that creates a unique way to allow governments to work together to reach more people.

Today, we offer the core communications and reach capabilities as well as a broader set of solutions to transform the citizen experience including interactive texting, advanced security, digital marketing, learning, and data. Our Digital Engagement Services team is engaged with many of our clients on solving their most pressing problems that often start with the question:

What do you need more citizens to do in order for your agency/city/state/county to be more effective?

I’ve spoken of the benefits of scale before:

• Why we’re thinking small in Civic Tech in order to make a big impact on government
• The Elephant in the Room… Is Government the Worst Possible Customer?

Going forward, you can expect more of the same from GovDelivery and that’s a good thing. We will continue to listen to clients, expand and improve the solutions we offer, and invest in supporting security and other core government needs.

As always, we look forward to what is next!

P.S. Are you interested in learning more about our investor Vista Equity Partners?  Here is a great article from the Washington Post: “Who is this Robert Smith?: A quiet billionaire makes some noise with $20 million gift to the African American museum”

Or, visit our Vista Equity Partners page to learn more about our investor.