How a $290M investment from Insight Partners is expected to accelerate Kansas govtech company’s expansion

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A massive investment influx into a Kansas software company will shift majority ownership away from its founder, but is expected to strengthen the tech platform’s growing portfolio — built with an aggressive product development roadmap and by adding functionality through its own targeted acquisitions.

“It’s a good deal,” Ward Morgan, founder of Manhattan-based CivicPlus, told his hometown newspaper, The Manhattan Mercury. “We’re not expecting to see a whole lot of change, other than maybe accelerating our growth plans a little bit; it’s not a hostile takeover.”

CivicPlus, a provider of cloud-based software, announced the $290 million investment from New York-based global venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners earlier this month. Insight made headlines locally in March 2019 when it invested more than $100 million in Kansas City-based govtech startup PayIt, and again earlier this month when the New York firm led a $73 million equity round for SafetyCulture, which operates its North American headquarters in Kansas City.

The CivicPlus investment is expected to fund strategic acquisitions and quicken the platform’s buildout, Insight said in a press release.

Click here to read the Manhattan Mercury’s story on the CivicPlus investment. Morgan and CivicPlus did not respond to outreach from Startland News.

More than 4,000 local governments use CivicPlus solutions when serving their 250 million citizens, according to the company, which boasts an ability to help agencies “drive more revenue, operate more efficiently, and generate positive recognition for the many services they provide every day.”

“In meeting with CivicPlus’ leaders, we recognized that they are well-positioned to support the evolving demands faced by local governments,” said Ryan Hinkle, managing director at Insight Partners. “With significant market penetration, strong customer relationships, and a growing portfolio of civic engagement solutions, CivicPlus is uniquely positioned to redefine the role technology plays in the relationship between local governments and their citizens.”

As part of this month’s Insight deal, CivicPlus’ previous minority investor — Boston-based BV Investment Partners — exited from the 20-year-old Kansas software company. News of the sale to Insight came exactly two years to the date after BV first announced its undisclosed minority investment in CivicPlus.

Also positioned as an investment for growth and acquisitions, the 2019 deal with BV came on the heels of CivicPlus’ move to boost its platform — and “create that seamless experience” — by acquiring startups or competitors and integrating their solutions into CivicPlus, according to Government Technology. 

Such acquisitions included Rec1, which CivicPlus acquired in January 2017 and used its software to launch a parks and recreation product; BoardSync in October 2017, for agenda and meeting management software; and Virtual Towns & Schools in July 2018, for its CivicCMS, the site reported.

After the BV investment, CivicPlus soon acquired its competitor SeeClickFix, a software company with a tool for users to report 311 issues via mobile devices. By early 2020, the Kansas govtech platform launched a new division focused on the technology, according to Government Technology reporting.

Ward and Brenda Morgan; photo courtesy of the Midwest Dream Car Collection

CivicPlus has been an Inc. 5000 fastest-growing company for the past 10 years, and has made the GovTech 100 list every year since its founding in 2001. And with the company’s decades of success, the Morgans have been heralded as top entrepreneurs in their community, which sits at the northern gateway to the Flint Hills.

CivicPlus headquarters, Manhattan

Morgan told The Mercury that he and his wife, Brenda, are “a little bit sad in a sense” they are no longer majority owners of the govtech scaleup company, but noted he’s excited for the investment’s potential to impact CivicPlus staff and the Manhattan community.

In 2018, Wade Morgan announced plans to open the Midwest Million Dollar Car Collection in a former grocery store — featuring nearly 60 classic cars from Morgan’s private collection in the 54,000 square foot space. Now known as the Midwest Dream Car Collection, it operates as a nonprofit in Manhattan.

The Morgans also have started and invested in a number of retail and restaurant locations in and around downtown Manhattan, as well as keeping their tech company in the college town where they both graduated, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.

“CivicPlus will stay headquartered in Manhattan, and there won’t be any layoffs or restructuring or anything like that,” Morgan told The Mercury, emphasizing Insight’s new role as a partner with strengths in marketing, software development, human relations, and finance.

This story is possible thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that seeks to build inclusive prosperity through a prepared workforce and entrepreneur-focused economic development. The Foundation works to change conditions, address root causes, and break down systemic barriers so that all people – regardless of race, gender, or geography – have the opportunity to achieve economic stability, mobility, and prosperity. 

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