The process of selling products and services to the public sector has long been defined by a massive barrier to entry: information fragmentation. While government data is technically public, it is often buried in thousands of disparate websites, unsearchable PDFs, and localized meeting recordings.
Now, a startup called Pursuit aims to bridge this gap by using artificial intelligence to transform raw public data into actionable business intelligence.
The Mission: Making Government Procurement Accessible
Founded by Mike Vichich—who previously exited a consumer startup to Olo for $200 million—and Brandon Max, Pursuit was born from a realization that the friction involved in winning government contracts is a systemic problem.
The company’s platform targets the SLED market (State, Local, and Education entities). This sector is notoriously difficult to navigate because it consists of approximately 11,000 distinct entities, ranging from massive state agencies to tiny local school districts and special districts.
How the Technology Works
Pursuit functions as an automated intelligence layer. Rather than requiring sales teams to manually hunt for leads, the platform utilizes AI to:
- Aggregate Data: Continuously crawl budgets, contract registers, FOIA records, and Requests for Proposals (RFPs) across the country.
- Identify Signals: Analyze budgetary trends, current organizational challenges, and leadership changes to predict which agencies are most likely to purchase specific services within a given year.
- Automate Research: Act as an “AI clone” for sales teams, providing them with deep research into their specific territories without the manual labor typically required.
“The data has always been public; it’s just that the cost of finding and parsing it has historically been too high relative to the value of any single contract,” says Vichich.
High-Profile Backing and Market Position
The startup’s ability to solve this “data haystack” problem has attracted significant venture capital. On Wednesday, Pursuit announced a $22 million seed round led by Mike Rosengarten, co-founder of OpenGov.
To date, the company has raised $25.5 million from a heavy-hitting roster of investors, including:
– Bill Gurley (Benchmark)
– Jack Altman (formerly of Alt Capital)
– Sam Hinkie (87 Capital)
While Pursuit enters a competitive landscape alongside established players like Starbridge, GovSpend, and Deltek GovWin IQ, its focus on using AI to parse highly fragmented, unstructured data positions it as a modern contender in the GovTech space.
Why This Matters
The success of platforms like Pursuit could signal a shift in how the public sector operates. By lowering the barrier for private companies to find and bid on contracts, the government may benefit from increased competition, which often leads to better pricing and more innovative solutions. For businesses, it turns a “needle in a haystack” search into a streamlined, data-driven sales process.
Pursuit is leveraging AI to turn opaque, fragmented public records into a transparent pipeline for companies looking to serve the public sector.
