Selling to the public sector has long been considered a startup graveyard — slow, bureaucratic, and nearly impossible to scale. But Justin Wenig, founder of Starbridge, believes that’s exactly where the next major AI opportunity lies.
Justin Wenig’s govtech startup Starbridge announced a $42 million Series A, led by David Sacks’ Craft Ventures, with participation from Owl Ventures, Commonweal Ventures, and Autotech Ventures. The new round brings Starbridge’s total funding to $52 million, following a $10 million seed raised last year.
From Higher Ed to Government Modernization
Wenig’s journey into government tech began during his time at Y Combinator in 2019, where he was building Coursedog, a SaaS platform modernizing operations for universities and state education departments.
“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 bureaucratic and too slow. And to be fair, they weren’t wrong.”
Coursedog went on to scale rapidly and was acquired in 2021 by JMI Equity in a nine-figure deal. Wenig stayed on the board — but never lost sight of the problem that had frustrated him from the beginning: how difficult it was to find and act on public sector data.
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Turning Fragmented Data Into Actionable Intelligence
In 2024, he founded Starbridge to change that. The company’s AI-powered platform helps sales teams identify, track, and pursue opportunities in the public sector, consolidating data from thousands of fragmented sources — agency websites, procurement filings, meeting minutes, PDF documents, and more.
Starbridge structures this data into a unified dashboard that shows which government or education entities are most likely to purchase new technology, complete with AI-generated account scoring, alerts for leadership changes, and real-time updates on initiatives or budgets.
“Critical buying information is scattered across PDFs and outdated directories,” said Wenig. “We bring it all into one place so vendors can see exactly who to contact, when to act, and where the opportunity really is.”
Craft Ventures Bets on the Next Generation of GovTech
For David Sacks’ Craft Ventures, Starbridge represents a rare opportunity to back a company digitizing one of the world’s largest, least efficient markets.
“Instead of chasing noise, our customers now have a clear, data-backed view of where to focus and when to act,” Wenig said.
The company’s traction — along with its AI-first approach — caught Craft’s attention quickly. Wenig described the fundraising process as “fun,” crediting a personal introduction for the connection.
Beyond CRM: Starbridge’s Next Act
With the new funding, Starbridge plans to launch what Wenig calls the “Starbridge Integrated Experience” — embedding its insights directly into customers’ daily workflows.
“Every competitor stops at the CRM,” Wenig explained. “We’re going further — every account question answered in Slack, every job change auto-synced into your sequencer, every public-sector update right where you work.”
While competitors like GovWin and GovSpend focus on aggregating government data, Starbridge differentiates itself with AI-driven workflows layered on top of its dataset — effectively turning static information into proactive, actionable intelligence.
A New Era for Mission-Driven Founders
Reflecting on the shift in investor sentiment since his early days, Wenig sees a broader change in how VCs view public sector innovation.
“When I was raising for Coursedog, no one wanted to talk to us,” he said. “Now, in the AI era, the tides have turned. Maybe nobody wants to run for office anymore — but they do want to build.”
He believes this new wave of mission-driven founders tackling systemic challenges could define the next decade of innovation.
“Seeing builders attack real, structural problems like this makes me incredibly hopeful for the future,” he said.
About Starbridge
Starbridge is a San Francisco–based govtech company transforming how sales teams engage with the public sector. By unifying fragmented public data into an AI-powered platform, Starbridge helps vendors identify, prioritize, and pursue government opportunities faster and more efficiently. Founded in 2024 by Justin Wenig, Starbridge is backed by Craft Ventures, Owl Ventures, Commonweal Ventures, and Autotech Ventures.
