The Austin, Texas-based company GovOS has announced it will acquire the Durango company MUNIRevs.
“The benefits for our clients, our customers and our employees are that with GovOS we immediately have access to more resources,” said Erin Neer, founder of MUNIRevs and new chief strategy officer for GovOS. “What it ultimately means is more innovation. We can serve more governments, we can develop more products, and just really help government agencies transform to digital solutions even more.”
For the past decade, MUNIRevs has been assisting local governments all over the U.S. on tax collection and business licensing, among other things. Partnering with GovOS, a company with a shared passion for creating digital solutions for local governments, was a logical next step, Neer said.
“For me, it’s the right next chapter for the company,” Neer said.
GovOS will retain all of MUNIRevs employees in the acquisition. The Durango office, and its 21 employees will stay in the Durango area. In total MUNIRevs has about 40 employees, most of whom work in Colorado.
GovOS will retain all of MUNIRevs employees in the acquisition.
To date, the company has attracted 150,000 users across 197,466 active businesses. MUNIRevs LODGINGRevs has helped jurisdictions collect $1.55 billion in online tax payments and fees, while eliminating about 95% of addressed manual data entry tasks.
The price of the acquisition was not disclosed by GovOS or MUNIRevs.
With Durango being a MUNIRevs customer, the acquisition opens a number of new opportunities for the city.
“Currently, the city utilizes our short-term rental solutions, and with GovOS we can provide a lot more solutions for records management, form automation,” Neer said. “There are existing products that communities like Durango can immediately benefit from, and then there’s continued innovation to our products.”
Like many other communities throughout the U.S., Durango is struggling to figure out what to do about short-term rentals, such as those through Airbnb and VRBO.
“Cities need to know, No. 1, who’s renting. Then, No. 2, to be able to work with those constituents that are renting their home out, so that the city has the data to make good community planning decisions,” Neer said.
MUNIRevs’ short-term rental solutions provide Durango with data that can help the city make informed decisions with its focus on creating affordable housing.
“It’s all about identifying who is renting, so that those who are renting outside the compliance requirement of the community can be notified and stop,” Neer said. “Then those houses can turn into long-term rentals or affordable housing.”
In the process of building MUNIRevs, Neer participated in the Durango program Southwest Colorado Accelerator Program for Entrepreneurs.
“Erin Neer has done an incredible job of starting that company from the ground up,” Durango Chamber of Commerce Director, Jack Llewellyn said. “It speaks volumes to the talent she has. When I teach classes about starting a business I always say if there's a problem and you can come up with a solution, there’s a business opportunity. And she recognized a problem and found a solution.”
Llewellyn said he’s excited to see what potential job market growth the MUNIRevs and GovOS partnership might bring to the Durango area.
“If they continue to have their offices here, it could absolutely be an opportunity,” Llewellyn said.
Integration with GovOS will include MUNIRevs’ automated tax collection and licensing tool, as well as its short-term rental solutions.
“Communities succeed when their governments make it easy to do business,” GovOS President Kevin Lafeber said. “With the addition of MUNIRevs, GovOS provides local governments with a comprehensive suite of digital services they can use to enrich and enhance the lives of residents and businesses alike.”
njohnson@durangoherald.com
