Israel-based Zencity is on a mission to reinvent how cities make decisions. It uses AI to analyze resident feedback and deliver actionable insights that help governments prioritize resources, track performance, and connect with their communities. As a result, guesswork is practically eliminated from policymaking, and a new standard is set for performance management in local government.
Zencity’s approach presumes minimal integration or overhead; the company’s software gathers and analyzes millions of feedback points from all of the online and offline touchpoints that residents have with their city. Using advanced AI and machine learning, it distills reliable, actionable insights from this data.
“The past year has proven, more than ever before, that local governments are the most essential institutions of our society. We’re proud that our platform has played a role in helping leaders take into account more voices from across their communities and has helped them ensure they work for all their residents as they navigate this pivotal time,” Eyal Feder-Levy, CEO and co-founder of Zencity, said at the end of June 2021 when the company raised a $30 million funding round.
Zencity already works with hundreds of local governments across four continents, including more than 200 government agencies in the US.
Among its clients are Austin, TX; Aurora, IL; Fort Lauderdale, FL; Douglas County Sheriff Office, CO; Los Angeles, CA; Chicago, IL; Ottawa, Canada; Michigan State Department of Health and Human Services; Houston, TX; Menifee Police Department, CA; Cary, NC; Phoenix, AZ; San Jose, CA; Sacramento, CA; Long Beach, CA; Pueblo, CO; Washington County, OH; Sarasota County, FL; New Orleans, LA; Pittsburgh, PA; County of Maui, HI; State College, PA; Alachua County, FL; Philadelphia, PA; Scottsdale, AZ; Colorado Springs, CO; Foster City, CA; Chattanooga, TN; Ontario, CA; Tempe, AZ; Lancaster, TX; Orange County, VA; Pasadena, CA; Oklahoma City County Health Department; Albany, GA; Redwood City, CA; Tel Aviv, Israel; and Herzliya, Israel; to name a few.
Going forward, the company plans to make a further push in the UK and Australia.
As of June 2021, Zencity raised $51 million in venture funding from a number of investors, including TLV Partners, Vertex Ventures Israel, Salesforce Ventures, M12 (Microsoft’s venture fund), and Canaan Partners Israel.
Takeaway
Zencity already works with hundreds of local governments across four continents, including more than 200 government agencies in the US. Going forward, it plans to make a further push in the UK and Australia.
Action point
Perhaps you've heard of saying that if you can't measure something, you can't manage it. And that's exactly where Zencity can help - it provides you with data that can be measured so you, as a public official, could make better decisions for your constituents. Not only will this help your city provide services of higher quality, but it could also help your career — as you will be the one proposing to procure Zencity's software for your municipality.
Although Zencity's client list is big — and growing — chances are they could still benefit from good distributors to help them reach new markets. And that's where your business could kick in, by offering to sell their solution to the municipalities you're already serving. Heck, this is a novel piece of technology that could also help you unlock other markets. What you would be selling is not a piece of software, but an AI-powered tool that helps public officials better manage their cities and towns. And that shouldn't be a tough sell, or so we think.