JUNE - 2023MARTECHOUTLOOK.COM8IN MY OPINIONUSHERING TECHNOLOGY INTO AN UNTAPPED MARKETBy George Dimopoulos, Partner and Co-Founder, VentureFriendsFirst and foremost, I would like to extend my warmest wishes to everyone reading these lines and share my hope that we will get out of this crisis soon with as few casualties as possible.In the VC world, when we are referring to GovTech companies, we refer to innovative companies offering technology solutions and platforms aimed at transforming public services. Governments buy technology products and services to meet numerous core business and policy functions, which include offering e-services to citizens. There are at least 18 distinct sub-verticals, including applications of new technology in policing and security, health and social care, schools and education, smart cities and infrastructure etc.Entrepreneurs and investors have traditionally stayed away from government, seeing the public sector's ways of working inimical to technology's pace and agility. Investors have been particularly wary here, considering that government is too slow and difficult of a customer. I have to admit that I was one of those skeptical ones when it came to investing in a company whose main client will be the central or local government. Thankfully, I was given the opportunity to change camps and take GovTech seriously, after my first meeting with a GovTech company that pitched us in our offices. I came to the realization that this is a big market that remains much untapped, and just because of the specific intricacies when it comes to procurement and contracting, it has kept innovation away.More particularly, the investment opportunity takes the form of governments' $8 trillion annual procurement budget, $400 billion of which is spent on technology alone. Historically, this gigantic market has been the provenance of large companies with deep enough pockets to handle government tender George Dimopoulos
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