Socrata Announces Record Quarter for Revenue Gains, Customer Growth, and Global Expansion
Socrata, a Seattle-based cloud software company focused exclusively on democratizing access to government data, today announced outstanding gains in customer growth and revenue in the first quarter of 2014.
Over the quarter, the company welcomed 22 new customers, already half of what it gained in all of 2013. Plus, Socrata grew revenue by 106% and employee headcount by 108% compared to one year earlier.
“Our business is expanding more rapidly than ever and we’re excited not only by the numbers of customers and new employees we’re gaining but the passion everyone in the Socrata family feels about open data and its power to improve the world. We’re helping leaders on five continents create stronger governments and organizations with data,” says Socrata CEO and Founder Kevin Merritt.
Triple-Digit Year-Over-Year Revenue Growth
Socrata, with its SaaS-based technology platform, solutions, and apps continues to lead the open data and open performance market. Its revenue grew 106% year-over-year in Q1 2014. Highlighting the company’s high level of customer satisfaction and engagement, Merritt notes that Socrata has a near-100% renewal rate and that 65% of current customer renewals expanded their business with Socrata, adding features like more data hosting and open data apps.
Record-Setting Quarter for New Customers Gains
Socrata’s family of open data innovators grew by 22 in Q1 2014. This is a strong uptick in demand for its services, considering that Socrata added 44 new customers in all of 2013 and 29 in 2012. In addition, seven of those 22 customers are outside the continental U.S.
108% Year-Over-Year Employee Growth
Socrata invested heavily in customer success, product engineering, and sales capacity in Q1, expanding its headcount to more than double its level one year earlier. New employees were added in its Seattle and Washington, DC offices. Notably, Socrata added Jeff Kaplan as its Director of NGO and Multilateral Organizations. Already a leader in the open data community, Kaplan is known for his work as a consultant for the World Bank, bringing open data to countries in Eastern Europe and Africa.
“As the open data movement matures, we’re attracting and finding more talented people who have already been working with governments and organizations on transparency, accountability, and access to data. They have passion for open data, strong technical skills, valuable and relevant experience, and they believe deeply in Socrata’s mission to use data to improve the world,” says Merritt.
More Q1 2014 Highlights
In addition to strong revenue, customer, and headcount growth in Q1 2014, Socrata enjoyed some other noteworthy achievements that include:
- the release of a new suite of financial transparency apps – Socrata Open Budget™ and Socrata Open Expenditures™ – to help governments improve transparency into their budgeting and spending processes while educating citizens and encouraging them to get more involved in civic issues.
- launching the second edition of Open Innovation, Socrata’s print and digital magazine that features the latest news in open data plus opinion pieces from leaders in open data and open performance.
- forming a partnership in the United Kingdom with Ethos, a leading consultant helping cities use technology to be more efficient. The Ethos Smart business unit will work with Socrata to more rapidly bring open data and open performance to cities in the U.K.
Continued Momentum Forecasted For 2014
Socrata forecasts continued strong momentum in the public sector for its open data and open performance solutions, as well as its growing number of civic apps created on Socrata’s cloud platform.
About Socrata
Socrata is the cloud software company focused exclusively on democratizing access to government data. It helps government leaders improve transparency, modernize citizen access to information, and bring facts into every decision, with unprecedented speed and cost savings.
Delivered as turnkey cloud services, Socrata’s data consumerization products unlock data in enterprise silos and transform it into useful information that everyone can easily access, visualize, share and reuse. Innovators like the World Bank, Medicare, Data.gov, EnergyStar, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Kenya, Lombardia, and Maryland, have all chosen Socrata as the data-sharing platform for their open data and open performance initiatives. To learn more about Socrata, visit http://www.socrata.com or follow us on Twitter @socrata.