Eleven GovTech Startups Named to Pitch at State of GovTech 2026

Companies from across the country will pitch live to government and investor judges in Montgomery County, Maryland, September 9–10. Registration is free for government employees.

SILVER SPRING, Md., Aug. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- CivStart today announced the eleven startups selected to pitch at State of GovTech 2026, the organization's seventh annual national govtech summit, taking place September 9–10 at the Silver Spring Civic Building in Montgomery County, Maryland.

The selected companies span permitting, public safety, emergency management, grant administration, constituent services, and civic infrastructure finance. They will pitch live on the main stage to a judging panel drawn from local government, county technology leadership, and the govtech investment community.

The 2026 Startup Cohort

• Appellate  (Bentonville, AR) — system of record for police towing and vehicle custody
• Ayla  (Washington, D.C.) — public-sector recruiting on a live government labor-market data engine
• CODICE  (Washington, D.C.) — no-code permitting, licensing, and inspections platform
• Gostly  (Westminster, MD) — real-time command center for urban infrastructure
• Grantwell  (Los Angeles, CA) — AI grant management across the full lifecycle
• Green Stream Technologies (Wake Forest, NC) — flood and weather early warning systems
• Govstream  (Seattle, WA) — AI-driven permitting intake
• Labrynth  (US, Australia, EU, UK) — AI-native regulatory intelligence for permitting
• ManyBond — crowdfinancing for community-supported local investment
• Readyly  (Connecticut) — agentic AI resolving resident inquiries across every channel
• Samora AI  (Bellevue, WA) — multilingual voice AI for citizen information lines

The Judging Panel

• Hillary Orr, Deputy Director of Transportation, City of Alexandria, Virginia 
• Rita Reynolds, Director of Public Sector, CAI 
• Thao Hill, Co-Founder and CEO, Govinity 
• Tom Spenger, CEO, SOVRA 
• Eyal Feder-Levy, CEO, Zencity

The pitch competition is one part of a two-day agenda built around working sessions rather than passive programming. Attendees draft AI use policies, run live cybersecurity breach simulations, and bring unresolved problems from their own jurisdictions to work through with peers.

State of GovTech 2026 is expected to draw more than 200 attendees, split roughly evenly between public sector leaders and the entrepreneurs, investors, and industry practitioners who serve them. The venue sits directly on the Washington Metro, and registration is free for government employees. Full agenda and registration at civstart.com/sogt26.

About CivStart

CivStart is a govtech organization connecting government leaders with the technology solutions and entrepreneurs solving public sector challenges. Through its accelerator programs, industry events, and products including Clarity and GovFit, CivStart helps state and local governments define their challenges and find partners equipped to solve them. State of GovTech is CivStart's flagship annual summit, now in its seventh year. Learn more at civstart.com.

Media Contact:

Nick Lyell

Co-Founder & COO

[email protected] | 608.234.2166

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SOURCE CivStart