David Sacks' Craft leads $42 million Series A in govtech startup Starbridge | TechCrunch

""Out of hundreds of startups, only a handful of us were trying to modernize how government and education worked," Wenig told TechCrunch. "Investors thought it was too slow, too bureaucratic, too hard to scale. And to be fair, they weren't wrong. Selling to the public sector was painful.""

""Critical buying information is scattered across PDFs, agency websites, meeting minutes, and outdated directories," he said, adding that vendors spend hours trying to piece together who to contact and other insights."

""Instead of chasing noise, our customers have a clear, data-backed view of where to focus and when to act," he said."

Sales to the public sector is characterized by slow procurement cycles, heavy bureaucracy, and difficult scalability that deter many startups and investors. Critical buying information is fragmented and inaccessible, spread across PDFs, agency websites, meeting minutes, and outdated directories, requiring vendors to spend hours reconstructing contacts and insights. Starbridge aggregates public web data sources into a unified platform, scores and ranks public-sector accounts by purchase likelihood, and surfaces timely updates such as leadership changes and new initiatives. The product enables sales teams to prioritize high-probability opportunities, submit proposals, and draft grants or budgets more efficiently. Starbridge closed a $42 million Series A led by Craft Ventures.

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