Socrata

Socrata

Type	Private
Industry	Data as a Service
Founded	2007
Founder	Kevin Merritt
Headquarters	Seattle, Washington, United States
Key people	Kevin Merritt, Safouen Rabah, Matt Miszewski
Products	Open data, government performance management, government financial insights, data-driven government
Website	socrata.com

Socrata is a software company.

History

Socrata was founded in 2007 in Seattle, Washington, USA and subsequently opened offices in Washington, D.C. and London, U.K.

Originally known as Blist, Socrata launched as "the world's easiest database" at the DEMO 2008 conference. Blist was an easy-to-use, web-based, online software as a service database provider.^[1]

On June 2, 2009 the company changed its name from Blist to Socrata, coincident with its business decision to focus exclusively on meeting the needs of the public sector.^[2]

In March, 2016 Socrata and Motorola Solutions formed a strategic partnership in which Socrata would develop and operate CrimeReports on behalf of Motorola Solutions, Inc., bringing a more modern, mobile-friendly crime mapping solution to more than 1,200 law enforcement agencies in the U.S.^[3]

As of October, 2017 the company has 160 employees in the US, UK and Germany.

On April 18, 2018, the company announced that it has been acquired by Tyler Technologies.^[4] Substantially all the employees will join Tyler and the Socrata’s offices in Seattle and Washington D.C. will remain open as well.^[5]

Technology

Socrata develops and operates a government domain-specific, cloud-based data as a service platform that breaks down government data silos. This platform has the ability to ingest, store and serve all variety of public sector data workloads - from small, static data to dynamic big data including real-time, sensor-based data emitted from Internet of Things and smart city sensors and devices. The Socrata platform can store structured or unstructured operational, geospatial, financial and performance data and digital content like video footage.

Open Data Network

In July, 2014 Socrata introduced the Open Data Network, an initiative powered by machine learning designed to foster data-centered collaboration between governments and the private sector. Governments at each level have the same kinds of data - crime data, transit data, 311 service incident data, expenditure data.^[6]

FedRAMP

In June, 2017 Socrata achieved and was granted an authority to operated at FedRAMP Moderate status by the US Government's General Services Administration FedRAMP Program Management Office.^[7] The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) is a US government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud-based products and services. While governments have made public data available under less strict guidelines, the FedRAMP environment is suitable for sharing more sensitive, private data internally.

Customers

Socrata solutions have been adopted by public sector institutions of all sizes in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Australia and New Zealand. Some of the organizations that have adopted the Socrata platform are listed below.

Funding

Socrata has raised more than $54M in venture capital funding to date.^[8] Socrata received an initial series A round of venture capital funding of USD $6.5 million from Morgenthaler Ventures and Frazier Technology Ventures in January, 2008.^[9] The company received an $18 million series B funding round from OpenView Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Frazier Technology Partners, and In-Q-Tel in June, 2013. Socrata closed a $30M C round of funding in November, 2014, led by Sapphire Ventures with participation from Morgenthaler Ventures, Frazier Technology Ventures and OpenView Venture Partners.^{[10] [11]}

References