Cloud software company that's leading the shift to the data-driven government, today announced that it has closed an $18 million Series B round of financing led by OpenView Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors Morgenthaler Ventures and Frazier Technology Partners. Scott Maxwell, OpenView's senior managing director and founder, will join Socrata's Board of Directors.

Socrata is the first and only venture-backed software-as-a-service company in history to focus exclusively on enabling governments to open and consumerize their vast troves of untapped data in legacy database silos, and bringing this vital 21st century resource to life, as accessible and usable information for citizens, developers, and government employees.

Open Data Beyond the Catalog

"We discovered that the innovative approaches we pioneered in open data are a catalyst for a much more sweeping shift toward the data-driven government. Socrata is leading this shift by institutionalizing the data-fueled innovation process that puts quality of life information in citizens' hands, and empowers government leaders to improve performance and decision-making with newfound facts and insights," said Kevin Merritt, Socrata's founder and CEO.

"Everything starts with a systematic and wholesale transformation that brings government data to the same web and mobile user experience standards that are pervasive in the modern consumer era," added Merritt. "We deliver our solutions in an open, scalable cloud software platform, and a turnkey software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, which allows our customers to break from the outdated legacy enterprise gridlock, and results in significant budget relief for government IT departments."

"Socrata delivers an elegant antidote to legacy enterprise systems that were built on antiquated assumptions of hoarding enterprise data and locking it behind proprietary, closed standards. Its open data platform not only creates a valuable public good, but it also provides an easier, more economical way to enable the free flow of data and collaboration within government." said David Eaves, public policy entrepreneur and open data thought leader.

Series B Funding To Accelerate Customer and Partner Deployment

Socrata will use the new funding to expand its cloud infrastructure; scale its customer on-boarding, support and success programs globally; operationalize recently signed strategic partnerships; and more quickly develop the next wave of open data and government performance innovations for Socrata's customers and prospects.

With this Series B round of financing, which brings total funding to date to $25 million, OpenView's Scott Maxwell will join Scott Darling, a general partner at Frazier Technology Ventures; Robert Runge, a veteran technology strategist and marketer; and Socrata's Kevin Merritt, on the company's board.

"Open data has become a high priority at every level of government, creating enormous opportunities for disruptive innovation in the public sector," said Maxwell. "We invested in Socrata because we believe the company is well positioned to execute against that opportunity and that it has the vision, team and market-driven product pipeline to lead the field."

Socrata's suite of cloud-based products, including its industry-leading open data platform, power data-driven innovation in some of the largest public sector organizations in the world, such as the US Federal Government and the World Bank, as well as numerous states, cities and counties, including New York State and New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Maryland and Illinois, among others.

Socrata also has an advisory board that consists of Bill Bryant, an experienced entrepreneur and software industry executive who is currently a venture partner with Draper Fisher Jurvetson; and François Stieger, a distinguished entrepreneurial business leader and startup executive in the global enterprise software and public sector Information, Communications and Technologies (ICT) markets.

About Socrata

Socrata is the cloud software company focused exclusively on democratizing access to data in government. We help government leaders improve transparency, modernize citizen and developer 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, Oregon, Montgomery County, and Maryland, have all chosen Socrata as the data sharing platform for their open innovation initiatives. To learn more about Socrata, visit www.socrata.com or follow us on Twitter @socrata.

About OpenView Venture Partners

OpenView Venture Partners (www.openviewpartners.com) is an expansion-stage venture capital fund based in Boston that is focused on high-growth software, Internet, and technology-enabled companies. Through its staff of seasoned operating executives, who collectively bring several decades of technology and management experience to the firm, OpenView is able to help portfolio companies quickly optimize their product, go-to-market, and organizational and operational functions. Founded in 2006, the firm invests globally and has approximately $445 million in total capital under management.