Why Initialized is Backing Seneca to Bolster Communication, Responsiveness From Local Government

It is said that city and municipal governance is the most intimate type of governance.

The seemingly mundane world of school boards, city councils and neighborhood meetings is where most Americans experience a real-world relationship with their elected officials and public servants, in contrast to the more abstract and complex kinds of policy-making that happens at the state and federal level. In an era where higher layers of government are becoming more polarized and sclerotic, cities and metros are leading the way in pushing new and innovative experiments and policy ideas.

However, the roughly 19,000 city governments that exist across the U.S. are often underserved when it comes to modern, usable software that helps them manage relationships with their constituents and voters. Big cities like San Francisco can afford to have innovation units or run lengthy RFP processes to custom design software for homeless case management or affordable housing lotteries. But most cities can’t do these extensive, lengthy processes for every need.

Seneca Systems, a Y Combinator alum company, is building a constituent services platform system for local governments to manage their relationships with constituents. They offer a flexible system in the cloud where public servants can handle anything from service requests for small issues like potholes to larger issues of policy and legislative feedback from their communities. Unlike the typical request-for-proposal process for government software, it’s easy to try. Elected officials and public workers can sign up for it the way they would with any software-as-a-service platform.

City councils, parks and recreation departments, mayoral offices and police departments in cities from Oakland to Chicago to Miami and Los Angeles are using it. We’re backing them by participating in a $3.5 million funding round along with other investors including Cowboy Ventures, Govtech Fund and Y Combinator.

Take a look at their demo below: