The field of civic technology is burgeoning and investments are on the rise, with more than $430 million invested between January 2011 and May 2013, according to a new report issued by the Knight Foundation.
"Better defining the boundaries of civic tech will allow all of us to tap into its transformative power. The common goal of funders in this space is to strengthen communities," Knight Foundation Vice President Mayur Patel said in a press release. "Fundamental to that is seeing their own work in context, connecting and reaching more people through a unified effort that focuses on making an impact."
Before the foundation’s Dec. 4 report, there was little information on the level of investment and how many companies have been involved in the field. That investment comes amid national attention on the role of technology in making government more open, accountable and transparent, the report found.
The most invested cluster by a wide margin was peer-to-peer sharing with $234 million between January 2011 and May 2013. Following behind were neighborhood forums with $41 million, information crowdsourcing with $38 million and community organizing with $35 million.
One of the more surprising findings in the report was that 84 percent of all the investment capital flowed from private sources rather than grants and government funding, even though the projects are considered public.
The largest private investors in their categories were Google with $31.6 million in corporate investment, the Omidyar Network at $58.8 million in the financial investor category and actor Ashton Kutcher who topped individual investors at $16.2 million.
The growth of the civic technology industry has led to number of new startups in the field, approximately doubling every four years with 191 new companies and organizations forming in 2012, the report found.
