ArchiveSocial -- a civic-tech startup that provides automated archiving for social media content -- is the first company to partner with e.RepublicVentures.com, a new market accelerator program designed to bring innovative technology to government.

The arrangement provides ArchiveSocial with venture capital and other resources designed to increase the firm's public-sector market share.

'We're solving a problem that affects virtually every agency using social media, but most agencies don't know that we exist,' said ArchiveSocial founder Anil Chawla. 'Working with e.Republic is a game-changer. The partnership gives us access to the market and resources that we simply would not have on our own.'

ArchiveSocial -- recently named to Gartner's 2014 list of 'Cool Vendors in Government' -- offers a hosted solution that preserves social media content in its original format, time-stamps the data and makes it easily retrievable for compliance with state disclosure laws and the Freedom of Information Act, legal e-discovery and other needs.

The firm is a former Code for America Accelerator company, and it already has a growing list of government customers, including the state of North Carolina; the city of Austin, Texas; and Palm Beach County, Fla.

Growing social media use in government is triggering widespread records-retention challenges for public agencies. Social media content is subject to public records laws across the United States, creating the need for a cost-effective way to store and retrieve this information.

'For the past few years, agencies have been struggling to find a practical solution for this important transparency requirement. We have exactly the right technology at a price-point that makes sense for government,' said Chawla.

The newly launched e.Republic Ventures program invests in early stage companies to speed their entry into the public-sector market. Besides providing venture capital, the program links companies to incubation activities and to the broader resources of e.Republic Inc., parent company of Government Technology, Governing and other government-focused media and research properties.

'We looked at dozens of early stage companies in the civic technology space -- and ArchiveSocial is unique,' said e.Republic co-founder and CEO, Dennis McKenna. 'It's a solid company with a simple, disruptive solution for governments that is immediately scalable.'

McKenna said the Ventures program furthers e.Republic's longstanding mission of transforming government and education through smart, innovative technology.

'Too often, new companies with great solutions to public-sector problems don't have the resources, know-how and reach to truly scale,' McKenna said. 'We're launching e.Republic Ventures to help companies with exciting public-sector solutions overcome these hurdles and win in the government market.'

About e.Republic Ventures:
e.Republic Ventures provides mentorship and capital for a select number of early stage companies to accelerate their entry into the public sector market. It links the incubation efforts of e.Republic Labs by proving and scaling emerging government and civic technologies with the combined resources of e.Republic, parent company of Government Technology, Governing and other media and research properties focused on the state and local government market.

About ArchiveSocial:
ArchiveSocial enables public entities to safely and effectively utilize social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn. ArchiveSocial is the industry's first archiving technology providing 100% authentic capture of social media for compliance with state and federal records laws such as FOIA. It provides a legal safety net, and eliminates the time and effort required to respond to public records requests. ArchiveSocial is completely hosted and requires zero IT deployment. It serves as a cost effective offering for any sized public entity, and provides the industry's easiest and most comprehensive solution for managing records of social media. ArchiveSocial was selected for the prestigious Code for America Accelerator in 2013, and has been named a 2014 Cool Vendor in Government by leading analyst firm Gartner. ArchiveSocial is based in Durham, North Carolina.