FiscalNote buys MyCandidate

FiscalNote, which is backed by Mark Cuban, said Thursday it has acquired MyCandidate. Financial terms weren’t announced. MyCandidate is a mobile app that aggregates and analyzes information about political candidates in South Korea.

PRESS RELEASE

WASHINGTON, D.C. – September 10, 2015 – FiscalNote™, provider of a real-time legal analytics platform that tracks, analyzes and forecasts legal and policy data, today announced the acquisition of MyCandidate, a mobile application that aggregates and analyzes information about political candidates in South Korea. Through this acquisition, FiscalNote expands its footprint in South Korea and the rest of Asia, setting the stage for an aggressive and rapid move into international markets. FiscalNote’s current and future Global Fortune 500 customers will benefit significantly through the collection of open legal and government data from countries all over the world, beginning in the Asia-Pacific region.

MyCandidate collects and presents data from South Korea’s National Election Commission website, as well as summaries from political campaigns, so voters can educate themselves on the major issues each candidate supports and opposes. Upcoming in the product roadmap is an app that monitors legislation to determine if candidates followed up on commitments made during their office tenures.

Along with the acquisition, MyCandidate’s founder and CEO, Rebekah Kang, joined FiscalNote as a market development manager, determining the feasibility of the Asian market and working with Korean partners to further develop the platform and expand FiscalNote’s customer base in the Asia-Pacific region.

“After working on political campaigns in South Korea, I realized there was a significant demand to efficiently connect voters and politicians through technology,” said Kang. “FiscalNote’s mission to make government data more useful is exactly what I was striving to accomplish in Seoul. It’s great to be joining a successful team with this shared passion, and I’m confident we will deliver great business value to customers and prospects, together.”

Significant investments in the South Korean market by major investors have prompted the rapid growth of the country’s technology industry and made it one of the most technologically advanced countries in Asia. Access to South Korean government data will be invaluable to companies that are doing business in the Asian market. From a global perspective, these multinational companies face challenges with globalization, given that it can be difficult to closely monitor and identify all the new legislations and regulations in multiple countries.

“This is our first exploratory move into the international market, and we intend to use South Korea as a launch pad for the rest of the Asia-Pacific region, as we work concurrently to expand our presence in EMEA and fulfill our mission to make sense of government,” said Tim Hwang, CEO and co-founder of FiscalNote. “We are extremely excited to welcome Rebekah to the FiscalNote family – her passion for technology and politics will help us extend and foster the great community she has already built around the app.”

Earlier this year, FiscalNote announced $10 million of Series B funding, led by Renren, in February 2015, just two months after securing $7 million in Series A funding. FiscalNote recently released its second product, Sonar, which searches, tracks and analyzes regulatory activity, while providing sentiment analysis across comments from stakeholders. The company aims to better connect organizations with government data, providing data-driven analysis to help policy and legal professionals gain valuable, actionable insights.

About FiscalNote
FiscalNote provides a real-time legal analytics platform that is revolutionizing the way policy and legal professionals work. With its mission of unlocking open data and fostering a transparent political and legal system, FiscalNote’s next-generation platform connects policy and legal professionals with the information they need to get vital alerts on market-moving issues, instantaneously analyze relevant laws and react effectively to political risk. The company’s first product, Prophecy, tracks, monitors and forecasts the outcome of state and federal legislation. Powered by its proprietary ingestion and predictive analytics engine, Prophecy uses legislative data from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Congress to determine legislator effectiveness and forecast policy outcomes with more than 94 percent accuracy. In 2015, the company introduced its second product, Sonar, which searches, tracks and analyzes proposed and final regulations, while providing sentiment analysis across comments from stakeholders. Founded in 2013, FiscalNote’s customer base spans multiple industries, including financial services, healthcare, energy and transportation, among others. Customers such as Aetna, Lyft, Republican Governors Association (RGA) and Democratic Governors Association (DGA) utilize FiscalNote for legislative and regulatory insight across their organizations.

FiscalNote is backed by Mark Cuban, Renren, NEA, Jerry Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures, First Round Capital’s Dorm Room Fund and Visionnaire Ventures. For more information, visit www.fiscalnote.com and follow on Twitter @FiscalNote.