Washington, DC, and San Diego, CA (December 2, 2020) — Government Executive Media Group (GEMG), the market-leading digital media, information, and intelligence company serving government leaders and contractors, announced that it has successfully completed the acquisition of The Atlas for Cities (The Atlas), an early stage Silicon Valley-backed startup. Based in San Diego, California, The Atlas is an online community and market intelligence platform for state and local government leaders. The announcement was made today by Tim Hartman, CEO, GEMG. The terms of the acquisition are not being disclosed. The deal was completed with financial support from mid-market private-equity firm Growth Catalyst Partners (GCP).

The acquisition of The Atlas serves as a foundational building block of GEMG’s market insights and data strategy, and will accelerate rapid growth of its state and local efforts that began with the launch of its award-winning brand, Route Fifty. In addition, this acquisition sets the stage for a new pathway to leverage The Atlas’ community-building, vast insights, and peer-to-peer learning model in additional public sector verticals, such as education and defense. 

Dedicated to the state and local government market, The Atlas digital platform provides a community for peer-to-peer exchange of best practices for government leaders, while providing government contractors valuable market data and intelligence. For government leaders, it supports innovation through connection that enables them to speak with fellow leaders, engage with member-published case studies, follow trending topics in government, and post questions to crowdsource ideas and advice. For government contractors, The Atlas enables them to build stronger relationships with government leaders in a more effective and customized way than other platforms. In subscribing, government contractors can showcase their solutions and how they have empowered government agencies to meet their missions, receive buyer intent data to inform their strategy in the sector, and gain actionable intelligence about the problems and solutions that matter to state and local jurisdictions across the nation. 

“The Atlas delivers on Government Executive Media Group's promise to look for companies that complement and supplement the full suite of offerings that we provide to our partners to reach decision makers across all facets of the public sector,” said Tim Hartman, CEO of GEMG. “With Elle and Ellory and the entire team at The Atlas, we have found cutting-edge technology and like-minded leaders who value the power of community to unite government decision makers and industry to make informed decisions, create sustainable connections, and drive government innovation forward. We couldn’t be more excited to start integrating their offerings and delivering new capabilities to our partners.”

The Atlas was founded by three women, all under the age of 35, whose work at and with government agencies inspired the formation of their company. In their government experience, they identified that a lack of transparency and peer-to-peer learning were the largest barriers to innovation in governments across the country. The company has seen incredible growth since the platform launched in 2019, creating a deep and loyal community that engages 21,000 local government leaders across 3,400 cities. 

Part of the exclusive 500 Startups community, The Atlas was highly sought after because of its high growth potential. “State and local governments in the United States spend $3.7 trillion per year. That’s almost 20% of GDP,” said Elle Hempen, co-founder of The Atlas. “Our mission to increase transparency and access for local leaders has the opportunity to transform this enormous, inefficient market and enable tangible progress on the most important issues of our times.”

In finding a new home at Government Executive Media Group, The Atlas looks to harness GEMG's scale and expertise across the entire public sector market to accelerate its growth and realize its potential. Upon joining the company, The Atlas will be able to scale its reach to GEMG's broader state and local audience (Route Fifty has over 100,000 subscribers to date). In addition, by combining data streams the companies will unlock new business insights at a scale and depth that does not yet exist in the government sector. Finally, it will expand its existing portfolio of private sector partners by offering its subscription to GEMG's 200+ government contractor clients who deeply value actionable data and who already trust GEMG to provide insights that inform their business strategy.

“We are so proud of The Atlas’ robust and engaged community of state and local government leaders and the ways that they share best practices and support each other’s learning, no matter the size or location of their city,” said Ellory Monks, co-founder of The Atlas. “Government Executive Media Group will be the perfect fit to combine our expertise in building community and generating market insights on a state and local level with the breadth of their expertise on a scale that we couldn’t achieve on our own. We are excited at the potential ways we can grow together, and look to launch an updated version of The Atlas, integrated directly with Route Fifty, this spring.”

The Atlas will remain headquartered in San Diego, and Elle Hempen and Ellory Monks will remain at the helm. There will be a period of transition over the next several months as the management team at The Atlas and GEMG integrate together from an HR and infrastructure perspective.

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About Government Executive Media Group

Government Executive Media Group (GEMG) is dedicated to providing federal, state, and local government leaders with trusted and useful insights and best practices to help them advance their organizations’ missions. Through its market-leading publications Government Executive, Nextgov, Defense One, and Route Fifty, GEMG reaches nearly two million government influencers nationwide each month across digital, print, and event offerings.

About The Atlas for Cities

The Atlas for Cities (The Atlas) is an online community for local government officials and staff to browse city case studies, follow trending local government topics, and post questions to colleagues. Since its official launch in April 2019, The Atlas has grown to 3,000+ monthly active city members. Its database includes more than 500 member-published case studies that cover topics as diverse as scooters, homelessness, and green infrastructure. The Atlas has been featured in Route Fifty many times for its work with local government leaders around the world. It is a recent graduate of Silicon Valley’s premier tech accelerator, 500 Startups.

Media Contact
Liz Stein
lstein@govexec.com | (240) 461-3053