The merger expands ArchiveSocial’s business into adjacent territory; one of the main purposes it began offering social media archiving with its launch in 2011 was because of the need to keep the statements of public officials available under freedom of information laws. Now it will be able to offer customers software to handle public records requests for social media posts — as well as other documents.
And public records requests have been increasing, likely creating demand among government agencies for software to manage those requests.
“With the accelerated growth in public records requests, it is crucial to have tools to ease the burden on both the requester and the government agencies that fulfill the requests,” said Reed Duecy-Gibbs, NextRequest’s CEO and co-founder, in a press release. “We look forward to joining forces with ArchiveSocial, bringing together our complementary services and technologies.”
According to the statement, NextRequest will retain all its employees. ArchiveSocial will hire employees for both remote work as well as in North Carolina, where it’s headquartered.
This is the first acquisition ArchiveSocial has made, and follows a $53 million cash infusion the company brought in in 2019. It’s also the sixth gov tech acquisition either announced or completed this month, after Tyler Technologies acquired VendEngine, Granicus bought OpenCities and Bang the Table, Verra Mobility completed its purchase of Redflex and OpenGov acquired ProcureNow.
*e.Republic, the parent company of Government Technology, is a former investor in ArchiveSocial through its venture capital arm.
