As we’ve written in the past, Civic Marketplace is a rapidly growing platform which streamlines and accelerates the procurement process by offering local governments information about available cooperative contracts and a way to collaborate and communicate with other cities and counties around the country. This endeavor is supported by an increasing number of partnerships and is dedicated to improving government operations, including those in smaller entities.

Today, this organization took an important step by announcing a formal partnership with CivStart Ventures, a Washington, D.C.-based  government technology accelerator for startups which can help vendors who otherwise wouldn’t have easy access to the decisionmakers in potential marketplaces.

Under the agreement, Civic Marketplace and CivStart Ventures will collaborate to establish an “innovation lane” featuring startups vetted through CivStart’s public-sector review process and platforms that are awarded cooperative contracts.

The goals of the partnership are to:

·        Build the connective tissue that helps governments engage with emerging technology; balancing innovation with transparency, compliance, and accountability.

·        Provide a fast safe way for governments to discover solutions that deliver community impact.

·        Integrate discovery, evaluation, and procurement into a single workflow

·        Provide visibility to startups entering cooperative purchasing programs.

·        Foster a community grounded in shared learning, mutual respect, and measurable results.

“Our mission at CivStart Ventures has always been to bridge the gap between innovative startups and government,” said Anthony Jamison, CEO of CivStart. “Working with Civic Marketplace allows us to extend that impact through a real-world procurement engine that translates innovation into implementation.”

Civic Marketplace is not a cooperative itself, but was launched to help cities, counties and other government entities navigate the sometimes-confusing world of cooperative contracting, which can yield enormous benefits, but can also be frustrating given the difficulty in accurately locating the best deals. “We want to help, educate and inform, but we don’t advocate for any specific contract or supplier,” says Al Hleileh, CEO and Co-Founder of Civic Marketplace.

About today’s newly announced partnership, he adds, “cities deserve the best solutions, and startups deserve a fair shot. By integrating CivStart Ventures’ public-sector vetting process and startup network into our cooperative procurement infrastructure, we’re creating a trusted innovation ecosystem, one where governments can adopt new solutions with confidence.”

Barrett and Greene Inc. has recently partnered with Civic Marketplace, often focusing on its work to assist smaller governments that have fewer tools and internal resources available to facilitate their procurement needs.

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