The U.S. government signs over 11 million contracts annually, totaling hundreds of billions of dollars, which presents a lucrative opportunity for vendors. However, navigating the federal contracting landscape is notoriously challenging due to the associated bureaucratic hurdles and red tape.
Companies looking to secure government contracts not only need to go through a complex eligibility process but also must provide the necessary representations and certifications, complete various standard forms, and adhere to federal acquisition regulations. On average, it takes several months to more than a year for vendors to receive contract awards.
Mike and Nick Weiland understood the difficulties of securing government contracts firsthand. They established Telescope, a company initially focused on lucrative government contracting opportunities, but soon found themselves compelled to create an entire department within their company dedicated to compliance and selling.
Recognizing the need for a solution that goes beyond merely identifying opportunities, Mike, the CEO of the startup, along with Nick and a third entrepreneur, Jon Wright, launched Govly. This platform enables companies to assess, search for, and analyze government contract requirements from various sources. Govly recently secured $9.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Insight Partners, with a post-money valuation of $41 million.
Govly is described as a market network for public sector procurement, offering a unified platform to reduce the risk of entities in the supply chain missing opportunities or important notifications about contract modifications. By default, Govly uses SAM.gov, the official site for tracking vendor eligibility for federal funds, to surface potential contract opportunities. Additionally, the platform supports other contract feeds, and Govly customers can set up targeted searches to receive notifications when a new opportunity aligns with their specific criteria.
To enhance the quality of contract searches, Govly utilizes a combination of third-party AI services, including OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 large language model and AWS Comprehend. These services extract critical information from contract opportunities, such as descriptions, due dates, customer details, and locations, while normalizing the various classification codes used by the government for these opportunities.
In addition to contract searches, Govly can automate contracting workflows and facilitate tasks like initial solicitation, enabling businesses to collaborate with partners in response to solicitations and potentially discover new partnerships in the process. For example, a Govly customer could collaborate with another organization on Govly to share data and work on government contract bids together.
Govly serves the entire supply chain of government contractors, including primes, resellers, distributors, and OEMs, each benefiting in slightly different ways. Primes use Govly to manage their contracts and share information with reseller partners, while resellers and OEMs leverage Govly to network with primes for contracting opportunities. Distributors use Govly to identify where their technologies are in demand in the federal sector and communicate with their reseller, prime, and OEM partners regarding specific opportunities.
While Govly faces competition, primarily from Bloomberg and GovWin, it is experiencing rapid growth, with annual recurring revenue approaching $1.2 million and the expectation of becoming profitable by the end of 2023. Govly’s team, consisting of eight individuals, currently serves around 400 organizations, ranging from paying enterprises to free, limited-access users.
The Series A funding will be used to expand Govly’s team and extend the platform’s reach beyond IT contracts, including state and local education opportunities. As the single largest procurer of goods and services in the United States and one of the top two in the world, the U.S. government continues to transact business at a remarkable pace, and Govly is helping organizations maintain or establish new relationships and contracts in the public sector. Govly aims to address the access issue by creating a network that allows the entire supply chain of government contractors to discover, track, collaborate, and secure more business opportunities, all within a single platform, replacing the traditional email-based process.
