Pursuit, a startup that uses AI to help businesses find and win contracts with state, local, and education agencies, announced a $22 million funding round led by Mike Rosengarten, co-founder of OpenGov. The round also attracted notable investors such as Bill Gurley and Jack Altman.
- Pursuit uses AI to aggregate and analyze public SLED contract data.
- Raised $22 million Series A led by OpenGov’s Mike Rosengarten.
- Backed by investors including Bill Gurley and Jack Altman.
What happened
Pursuit, a government procurement startup, announced closing a $22 million Series A funding round led by Mike Rosengarten, co-founder of OpenGov and partner at Builders VC. The company has now raised a total of $25.5 million, attracting major venture capital names such as Bill Gurley and Jack Altman. Founded in 2023 by Mike Vichich and engineer Brandon Max, Pursuit aims to simplify how companies access government contract opportunities.
The startup’s platform continuously scans and processes public procurement data from approximately 110,000 state, local, and education institutions across the United States. This includes budgets, contract registers, FOIA records, and requests for proposal, which were previously scattered and difficult to navigate. Pursuit’s AI then pinpoints the most promising potential government buyers for a client’s specific offerings.
Why it matters
Selling to government agencies has long been considered a complex and opaque process, largely due to the fragmentation and inaccessibility of procurement data. Although the raw data is public, it is buried across thousands of websites and formats, including PDFs and meeting videos, making discovery costly and time-consuming.
Pursuit’s approach uses AI to digest this sprawling information and deliver real-time insights tailored to businesses serving public sector entities. By increasing transparency and reducing the effort needed to identify contract opportunities, Pursuit hopes to democratize government procurement and improve efficiency for both buyers and sellers.
What to watch next
As Pursuit builds traction, its ability to scale data ingestion and accuracy will be key to becoming a go-to platform for businesses targeting state, local, and educational government contracts. Competition exists from startups like Starbridge, GovSpend, and Deltek GovWin IQ, so differentiation through AI intelligence and user experience will be critical.
Further funding rounds and expansion of data coverage could allow Pursuit to deepen its market penetration. Industry watchers will be keen to see how Pursuit leverages its high-profile backers and technology to reshape government procurement workflows and whether it can sustainably lower the barriers to entry in this traditionally difficult sector.