What Armillaria does

Armillaria is a Portland, Oregon-based for-profit LLC operating as a "design lab" that builds collective impact infrastructure connecting innovators, intermediaries, investors, governments, and community organizations. The company operates two interconnected platforms — NeedsList, a humanitarian crisis response and community resilience platform for matching organizations with resources in real time, and Innovation Exchange, currently in beta, which connects impact projects with opportunities to scale. Both platforms share modular components spanning Knowledge Curation, Opportunity Management, Ecosystem Mapping, and Community Resilience, and following Armillaria's January 2024 acquisition of Durham-based NeedsList, the company is preparing to merge them into a single interoperable codebase. Technology also includes a white-label enterprise version of NeedsList deployed under partner branding (e.g., by NCVOAD) and RespondLocal, a global instance powered by NeedsList used by Massachusetts state government to coordinate migrant crisis resources across 100 communities serving 7,500+ newcomer families.

Armillaria's customer base is concentrated in mission-driven segments: state and municipal government emergency management agencies, voluntary organizations active in disaster (VOADs), environmental and marine conservation NGOs, and impact finance intermediaries focused on BIPOC capital deployment. Named engagements include the Massachusetts State Government (migrant crisis response), NCVOAD (disaster preparedness white-label), COBI (SDG14 marine conservation in Mexico/Latin America), and Inclusive Capital Collective (cooperative financial infrastructure for BIPOC entrepreneurs). The NeedsList platform has supported communities in over 25 countries with aid worth more than $20 million, though this reflects platform-mediated economic activity rather than Armillaria revenue.

Revenue mechanics are not publicly disclosed; the company generates income through platform services and subscription/recurring arrangements to government agencies, NGOs, and community organizations, with enterprise white-label solutions custom-quoted. Go-to-market blends community-led engagement (partner network, field leaders, subject-matter experts), product-led growth (beta signup for Innovation Exchange, self-serve access to NeedsList), and OEM-embedded distribution (white-label deployments). The company operates with a deliberately lean core team of 1-10 employees led by co-founders Cameron Burgess (CEO) and Dr. Astrid Scholz (CFO), extending capabilities through a multinational, multi-disciplinary network of partners. No external institutional funding rounds have been disclosed.

Name

Armillaria

Legal name

Armillaria LLC

Website

https://armillaria.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Armillaria is a Portland-based design lab building collective impact infrastructure through two platforms: NeedsList, a humanitarian crisis response and community resilience platform, and Innovation Exchange, a beta platform connecting impact projects with scaling opportunities. It serves governments, NGOs, community organizations, and impact investors globally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

NAICS

Emergency and Other Relief Services (62423), Community Food and Housing, and Emergency and Other Relief Services (6242)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Disaster Recovery, Reconstruction & Resilience Programs (BPAGAAAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus & Resilience Programming (BPADAEAK), Logistics, Supply Chain & Humanitarian Air/Sea/Land Transport (BPADADAF)

Keywords

• Crisis response platform
• Humanitarian aid coordination
• Social impact infrastructure
• Community resilience software
• Impact finance platforms

Headquarters

HQ city

Portland

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Platform Services: Armillaria generates revenue through its platforms (NeedsList and Innovation Exchange) by providing crisis response, resource coordination, and impact scaling solutions to government agencies, NGOs, and community organizations.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Armillaria operates two interconnected software platforms—NeedsList and Innovation Exchange—that provide collective impact infrastructure for governments, NGOs, and community organizations. NeedsList is a humanitarian crisis response platform that matches organizations with resources through a shared list of community needs, while Innovation Exchange connects social-impact projects and organizations with opportunities to scale their impact. The company also offers a white-label enterprise version of NeedsList for organizations such as NCVOAD to deploy under their own branding.

Product overview

Armillaria operates as collective impact infrastructure for innovators, intermediaries, and investors, connecting individuals, organizations, and communities with opportunities to build resilience and scale impact. The company offers two core platforms—NeedsList and Innovation Exchange—each containing modules for Knowledge Curation, Opportunity Management, Ecosystem Mapping, and Community Resilience. Following the January 2024 acquisition of NeedsList, Armillaria is preparing to merge these platforms into a single interoperable code-base. NeedsList is a humanitarian platform that enhances community resilience and crisis responsiveness through matching organizations with resources, while Innovation Exchange catalyzes innovation by connecting projects with opportunities. The portfolio also includes white-label enterprise versions for disaster preparedness use cases.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• NeedsList: A crisis response platform that enhances community resilience and crisis responsiveness through a shared list of community needs to be fulfilled by a network of partners
• Innovation Exchange
• RespondLocal

Quantifiable outcome

• Supported communities in over 25 countries with aid worth more than $20 million

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered major, core and minor.

• Massachusetts State GovernmentmajorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 1 December 2023Massachusetts incorporated NeedsList into its emergency assistance program for new arrivals, creating the Massachusetts Emergency Assistance for New Arrivals issue area on the global RespondLocal platform. Armillaria provides the technology platform for real-time coordination during the migration crisis.
• Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Mexican marine conservation organization to build digital infrastructure for SDG14 (Life Below Water). Working to scale marine conservation initiatives to reach 300x more fishers in Mexico and Latin America through the Innovacion Azul (Blue Innovations) initiative. Armillaria provides systems design, technology architecture, and infrastructure development.
• Inclusive Capital CollectivecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to develop cooperative financial infrastructure for mobilising impact finance to BIPOC entrepreneurs. Armillaria developed the Community Capital Collective process for engineering community-centric systemic interventions. Working on shared loan loss reserves, technical assistance products, and deal standardization.
• North Carolina Voluntary Organisations Active in Disaster (NCVOAD)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNCVOAD adopted a white-label enterprise version of NeedsList for disaster preparedness. Partnership focuses on proactive disaster prevention and empowering communities with tools to anticipate and prepare for potential disasters.
• Zebras UniteminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInclusive Capital Collective was established as an incubated program of Zebras Unite. Armillaria's infrastructure work with ICC was informed by and aligned with Zebras Unite's infrastructure needs.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• NetHope: Consortium of global NGOs working on technology solutions for humanitarian response, with programs in disaster resilience and digital coordination. Comparable customer base and humanitarian-coordination mandate to Armillaria.
• Hivebrite: Community-engagement and membership platform used by nonprofits, alumni networks, and associations. Comparable platform architecture (customizable community platform with modules) and shared nonprofit/association customer segments as Innovation Exchange.
• Good360: Nonprofit logistics platform that matches donated goods to disaster-affected communities and NGOs. Overlaps with NeedsList's needs/resource matching model and shares the same nonprofit and emergency-management customer segments.
• CiviCRM: Open-source CRM built specifically for nonprofits, NGOs, and civic-sector organizations. Comparable in target customer (NGOs, impact organizations) and platform approach (modular, open), though more focused on constituent management than crisis response.
• Ushahidi: Open-source crisis-mapping and crowdsourcing platform used by humanitarian and civil-society organizations to coordinate disaster response. Directly comparable to Armillaria/NeedsList on mission (community crisis coordination) and customer base (NGOs, governments).
• Sahana Foundation: Open-source humanitarian platform providing disaster management, missing persons, and shelter registries for governments and NGOs. Closely aligned with NeedsList's humanitarian coordination use case and similar government/NGO customer segments.

Broad incumbents

• Salesforce.org (Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud): Enterprise CRM platform with a dedicated nonprofit and higher-ed cloud serving many of the same NGO, government, and impact-oriented customers as Armillaria. Broader and better-capitalized but less specialized in humanitarian/disaster coordination.
• Palantir Technologies: Data integration and operations platform heavily used by government agencies and humanitarian organizations for crisis response and resource coordination. Comparable technology positioning (systems integration for government/NGO use cases) but far broader scope and scale.
• Microsoft Tech for Social Impact: Microsoft's nonprofit and humanitarian technology program offering cloud, data, and collaboration tools to NGOs and humanitarian responders. Competes for the same government/NGO customers but as a broad incumbent rather than a specialized coordination platform.

Emerging players

• Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team: Open-source community producing geospatial data for disaster response and humanitarian coordination. Partial overlap with Armillaria's ecosystem-mapping and disaster-preparedness modules, with shared NGO and volunteer contributors.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/about

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

M&A1 record

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about Armillaria