What co:census does

co:census, operated by Seam Social Labs Inc., is a Black-womxn owned MWBE/DBE-certified Public Benefit Corporation founded in 2018 in New York that sells an AI-powered community engagement SaaS platform to urban planners, government transportation agencies, and architecture/engineering firms. The core platform combines an SMS and online survey tool with The Dubois™, a patent-pending NLP text classifier that categorizes open-ended community feedback into Pain Points (behaviors, affect, conditions) and Gains (solutions) at a reported 76% accuracy rate, alongside a five-point sentiment analysis Insights Tab and an alpha-stage civicX quota-based sampling module for representative data collection. Supporting products include multilingual SMS surveys (up to 8-11 languages) achieving reported 60% response rates, an Explore Dashboard with Esri GIS integration, and the co:lab/co:mmunity in practice education offering priced at $175-$350 per workshop and $1,299 for an annual Series Pass.

The company monetizes through a mix of annual SaaS subscriptions, per-survey usage fees, paid workshops and training, and professional services, with a 20% discount for government employees and qualifying 501(c)(3) nonprofits. Distribution combines direct enterprise field sales into transportation agencies and A&E firms (with named customers including SFCTA, MBTA, City of Tucson DOT, City of Lynn, WSP, and Ford Mobility) alongside a self-service dashboard at dashboard.cocensus.io. co:census has raised approximately $2.28M across four disclosed rounds through 2023, including a $1.6M seed in September 2022 led by Amazon Alexa Fund, Techstars Ventures, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, New Age Capital, and New Media Ventures, plus a 2023 Google for Startups Black Founders Fund grant and Tubbs Ventures investment. Recognition includes the 2021 Top Ethical Data Collection Solution designation, Amazon's Black Founders Build with Alexa program, AfroTech Future 50, and Google for Startups Black Founders Fund 2023.

Name

co:census

Legal name

Seam Social Labs Inc.

Website

https://cocensus.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

co:census is an MWBE/DBE-certified AI SaaS platform that helps urban planners and government transportation agencies collect, analyze, and translate multilingual community feedback into design and policy decisions.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Civic Engagement Software

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910)

SIC

Services-Advertising (7310)

akta.pro primary industry

Quantitative Research & Survey Analytics (Survey Design, Sampling, Statistical Modeling) (MPAAALAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Fieldwork & Data Collection (Online Panels, CATI/CAPI, Fieldwork) (MPAAALAD)

Keywords

• Community engagement software
• AI text analytics
• Urban planning surveys
• Public feedback analysis
• Civic engagement platform

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. SaaS Platform Subscription: Annual subscription model for platform access. Clients can access surveys, analysis tools, and team collaboration features through the dashboard platform at dashboard.cocensus.io.
2. Per-Survey/Transaction Fees: Usage-based or per-survey pricing for organizations deploying community engagement surveys. Survey creation from ideation to launch can be completed within a week.
3. Educational Workshops & Training: Revenue from co:mmunity in practice workshop series (individual workshops $175-$350, Series Pass $1,299), co:lab digital learning courses for government employees and public servants.
4. Professional Services: Survey design services, strategic community engagement planning, and research study support including translation services to multiple languages.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

co:census provides an AI-powered SaaS platform that combines SMS and online survey tools with NLP-based text analytics to help urban planners, transportation agencies, and architecture/engineering firms collect, analyze, and visualize community feedback. The platform includes proprietary text classification (The Dubois™), sentiment analysis, multilingual survey capabilities in up to 11 languages, and quota-based sampling for representative data collection.

Product overview

co:census is a MWBE/DBE-certified community engagement platform and Public Benefit Corporation offering a unified collaborative workspace that combines SMS and online survey tools with AI-powered text analytics. The core platform integrates multiple products: The Dubois™ (patent-pending NLP text classifier that categorizes feedback into Pain Points and Gains), the Explore Dashboard (for visualizing community solutions and concerns), the Insights Tab (for sentiment analysis on a five-point scale), civicX (alpha-stage quota-based sampling solution for representative data), and the SMS Survey Platform (supporting surveys in up to 8 languages with up to 60% response rates). The ecosystem also includes co:lab (educational courses on inclusive engagement) and the co:mmunity in Practice workshop series. Enterprise integrations are available for Twitter, SurveyMonkey, and Esri.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• The Dubois: Patent-pending AI text classifier that categorizes community feedback into pain points and gains (behaviors, affect, conditions, and solutions) for urban planning and design.
• civicX
• co:lab

Products and services

• co:census Platform Collaborative SaaS workspace for community engagement, research studies, and urban planning that combines SMS and online survey tools with AI-powered text analytics for government transportation agencies, urban planners, and A&E firms.
• The Dubois™ Patent-pending AI text classifier using Natural Language Processing that automatically categorizes community feedback into Pain Points (Behaviors, Affect, Conditions) and Gains (Solutions) for urban designers and planners.
• civicX Solution focused on diversity, equity, and representation in community engagement featuring quota-based sampling to measure data representativeness, real-time engagement monitoring, and SMS survey facilitation.
• co:lab Digital Learning Platform Digital learning platform for civic leaders and government employees offering courses on inclusive community engagement practices including 'Data by the People, for the People'.
• co:mmunity in Practice Workshop Series Workshop series featuring training on walking audits for community engagement, cross-sector stakeholder strategy, AI skills for research, and impact storytelling. Series Pass priced at $1,299.

Quantifiable outcome

• 20% increase in multilingual responses for SFCTA compared to previous engagement methods
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability6 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Seam Social LabscoreOthersco:census is operated by Seam Social Labs Inc., a New York corporation and Public Benefit Corporation. Seam Social Labs provides the underlying technology platform and corporate structure for co:census operations.
• InterEthnicaminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration with InterEthnica to reach diverse audiences in San Francisco District 4 Mobility Study, supporting cultural competency in community engagement.
• NextSFminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with NextSF to facilitate community engagement for San Francisco transportation projects, reaching diverse community members.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• MetroQuest: Public engagement SaaS used by transportation and planning agencies for surveys, visualizations, and stakeholder input. The closest direct competitor to co:census in the civic-engagement-for-planning category, with comparable multilingual and visualization capabilities.
• Social Pinpoint: Community engagement platform for government and planning agencies, offering online surveys, interactive mapping, and stakeholder consultation tools. Competes directly with co:census on the same transportation and urban-planning RFPs.
• MindMixer: Community engagement platform focused on city and government clients, enabling idea sharing, surveys, and participatory budgeting. Directly comparable in customer base (city governments and planning departments) and engagement workflows.
• PlaceSpeak: Civic engagement platform emphasizing verified, location-based public participation for government consultations. Comparable target market (government planners and transportation agencies) and survey-based engagement model.
• Citibeats: AI-powered platform that analyzes citizen feedback from open sources and surveys for governments and international organizations. Direct competitor in NLP-based civic-text analytics, comparable technology stack and public-sector use cases.
• Zencity: AI-driven community feedback analytics platform for local governments, aggregating resident input from surveys, social, and 311 data. Closest direct competitor combining AI text analytics with government customer base.

Broad incumbents

• Qualtrics: Enterprise survey and experience management platform with broad market-research capabilities and government clients. A broad incumbent whose generic sentiment/thematic tools compete with The Dubois™ at scale, though without co:census's civic-specific schema or MWBE positioning.
• SurveyMonkey: Mass-market survey platform with government and enterprise tiers, already integrated into co:census as a data-import partner. Competes at the survey-collection layer rather than the AI-text-analytics layer.

Emerging players

• Replica: Urban planning data and analytics platform providing mobility, land-use, and demographic insights to planners and transportation agencies. Adjacent competitor in the data-driven urban-planning category with overlapping customer base.
• Remesh: AI-powered qualitative research platform that uses NLP to analyze open-ended audience responses in real time. Comparable in AI-driven text analysis of qualitative feedback, though focused on market research and employee engagement rather than civic use cases.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/CoCensus
• Facebookfacebook.com/cocensus

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors9 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about co:census