Granicus grows in St. Paul

Downtown St. Paul is the fastest-growing office for Denver-based Granicus, the growing provider of digital-communication services to local, state and national government agencies, according to CEO Mark Hynes.

Vista Equity Partners, the parent of Granicus, acquired in late 2016 the former GovDelivery for $153 million. GovDelivery, founded in St. Paul in 2001, operated several offices, including Washington D.C. and the United Kingdom.

Hynes said the consolidated revenue of Granicus will top $100 million this year, compared to $40 million in 2016. Employment has grown from 100 to 130 in St. Paul, and the office has 10 job openings.

"The Twin Cities is a great market for skilled employees," Hynes said. "We have grown fastest in St. Paul.

"They write software in St. Paul for products that span the globe and the same for customer support."

More than 4,200 units of government, from towns to the federal government, use Granicus for electronic communications with citizens.

"We've made five acquisitions since Gov.Delivery," Hynes said. "Our secret sauce is focus. Government is our single opportunity. We are the largest software-as-a-service provider to government in the U.S. and U.K."

Granicus offers governments a variety of services, from website design to automating public meeting calendars; notifying citizens via e-mail and social media and storing and managing public documents.

Vista Equity, a Texas-based technology private-investment firm, bought a controlling stake last year in Jamf, a Minneapolis-based provider of management tools for Apple products. Vista Equity owns about two dozen software companies, including Bloomington-based Newscycle Solutions and Granicus.