Metagov
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2019
- HeadquartersPittsburgh, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
Metagov firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Metagov
- Legal name
- Metagov
- Website
- https://metagov.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2019
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Metagov industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Digital Governance Infrastructure
- NAICS
- Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (541720), Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (5192)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Metaverse Virtual World Platforms (social worlds, land, UGC) (FSAPAGAD)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Interoperability & Asset Bridging for Games (cross-game/cross-chain assets) (FSAPAGAJ), Player Wallets, Identity & Accounts for Games (embedded wallets, SSO, DID) (FSAPAGAF)
Keywords
Where Metagov is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Pittsburgh
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Metagov business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Individual Donations: Metagov accepts individual donations via credit card, bank transfer, and through their Open Collective page. Donations support the organization's three pillars: operations, community, and research.
- Foundation and Institutional Grants: Metagov receives funding from foundations and institutional partners including One Project, Henry Luce Foundation, NSF, Grant for the Web, Center for Cultural Innovation, and others. The organization operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, making grants and charitable funding its primary revenue source.
- Web3/Crypto Ecosystem Funding: Metagov receives support from web3 organizations including Optimism Collective, Filecoin Foundation, Ethereum Foundation, Aragon, Arbitrum, Radicle, ENS, GnosisDAO, and through Gitcoin grants rounds and Open Collective.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | One time | Groundwork Fellowship: $2,000 total stipend |
| Other | One time | Governable Spacemakers Fellowship: $8,000 per fellow |
| Other | Multi-year contract | Public AI Founding Infrastructure Engineer: $50,000 over 3 months |
| Other | Multi-year contract | Public AI Research Engineer: $20,000 over three months |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels8 records
Metagov product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Metagov is a nonprofit research laboratory for digital governance that develops open-source software, APIs, datasets, and standards for online community self-governance. Its products include the Metagov Gateway API, KOI (Knowledge Organization Infrastructure), the Govbase dataset/database, the DAOstar standards body, the Telescope Discord bot, Public AI inference utilities, and Interoperable Deliberative Tools.
Product overview
Metagov is a nonprofit laboratory for digital governance cultivating tools, practices, and communities that enable self-governance in the digital age. The organization operates through three pillars: Community, Research, and Operations. Its product portfolio centers on governance infrastructure and standards: Metagov Gateway provides an API gateway connecting governance tools to platforms (Slack, Discord, GitHub, Discourse, Open Collective, Loomio); KOI Pond offers a knowledge organization infrastructure with LLM-mediated querying; Govbase maintains an open database of online governance projects and organizations; DAOstar develops Ethereum standards for DAOs; and Interop focuses on interoperable deliberative tools. Additional offerings include Public AI (inference utility for sovereign AI), Telescope (ethnography bot), and various fellowship programs. The organization also hosts the Metagov Seminar series and manages MetagovDAO for funding governance research.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Metagov Gateway
- KOI Pond
- Govbase
- DAOstar
- Telescope
- Public AI
- Interoperable Deliberative Tools
Quantifiable outcome
- Comprehensive governance database covering Projects, Organizations, Structures, Cases, Documents, and more through Govbase
Companies that use Metagov
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Metagov technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration12 records
AI capability5 records
Feature4 records
Metagov partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and supporting.
- Harvard Berkman Klein CentercoreMetagov originated from a seminar at Harvard Law School called 'Governing Virtual Worlds.' Originally intended as a collaboration between Harvard's Berkman Klein Center and MIT Media Lab before spinning out as independent nonprofit.
- MIT Media LabcoreOriginal founding collaboration alongside Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for the Metagov concept before independent spinout.
- BlockSciencecoreKey technical partner for KOI (Knowledge Organization Infrastructure) development. BlockScience developed the KOI architecture and is building the KOI-net protocol. David Sisson serves as domain expert and coordinator from BlockScience.
- Current AImajorParis-based nonprofit collaborating on Public AI initiatives. Jointly funding Public AI Fellowship roles including Founding Infrastructure Engineer and Open Source Fellow.
- CSCS (Swiss National Supercomputing Centre)majorCompute partner for national-scale AI inference through the Public AI Inference Utility. Part of scaling infrastructure for sovereign AI deployment.
- AI SingaporemajorPartner for SEA-LION model deployment through Public AI Inference Utility, serving AI Singapore models to users globally.
- AI SwedenmajorPartner for national-scale inference deployment as part of Public AI infrastructure expansion.
- Barcelona Supercomputing CentermajorPartner for national-scale inference deployment as part of Public AI infrastructure scaling.
- ADM+S (Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society)coreResearch partnership with RMIT for KOI instantiation. Approved Telescope-flagged posts from Metagov's Slack are accessible to the ADM+S KOI for ethnographic analysis, demonstrating inter-organizational data sharing via KOI.
- Internet ArchivesupportingArchiving partner for Metagov Seminars. All seminars are recorded and posted to Internet Archive for public access.
- Stanford Digital Civil Society LabsupportingAcademic research partner in digital governance and civil society research.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Metagov competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Tally: On-chain DAO governance dashboard and voting platform. Directly comparable as a venture-backed governance tool competing for the same DAO operator mindshare that Metagov's Gateway and EIP-4824 seek to standardize.
- Snapshot: Off-chain DAO voting and governance platform. Directly comparable as the dominant governance tooling surface for DAOs, competing with Metagov Gateway and DAOstar's standards ambitions in the same community.
- Gitcoin: Public-goods funding platform running grants rounds and Grant Stack. Directly comparable because Gitcoin funds Metagov via MetagovDAO while also operating its own governance research program, sharing the public-goods funding and governance-research focus.
- Open Collective: Transparent fundraising and fiscal hosting platform for open-source communities. Directly comparable because Open Collective hosts Metagov's finances and is integrated into Metagov Gateway as a governance-action source for community expense voting.
- Aragon: DAO governance framework and tooling platform. Directly comparable because Aragon is both a governance infrastructure provider and a Metagov funder, operating in the same DAO tooling category that DAOstar/EIP-4824 targets.
- BlockScience: Engineering and research firm building the KOI architecture and KOI-net protocol with Metagov. Directly comparable as a co-developer of Metagov's core knowledge infrastructure and an applied governance engineering peer.
Others
- Internet Archive: Digital library archiving public web content including Metagov's seminar recordings. Comparable as an adjacent public-infrastructure nonprofit that shares mission alignment and serves as an archiving partner, though it operates in a different domain.
Emerging players
- DeepDAO: Analytics platform for DAO governance and treasuries. Comparable as an emerging data asset for the DAO governance ecosystem that overlaps with Metagov's Govbase dataset ambitions.
- Computational Democracy Project: Nonprofit stewarding Pol.is open-source deliberative technology. Comparable as a sibling nonprofit working on digital deliberation and democratic governance tooling, and as Liz Barry's prior organization before she joined Metagov as executive director.
Broad incumbents
- Optimism Collective: Ethereum L2 ecosystem with RetroPGF public-goods funding program. Comparable as a broader incumbent funder and ecosystem player whose governance and public-goods funding thesis closely aligns with Metagov's mission.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Metagov social profiles
Digital presenceMetagov financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Metagov leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles11 records
Metagov funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Metagov M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Metagov
What does Metagov do?
Metagov is a nonprofit research laboratory for digital governance that develops open-source software, APIs, datasets, and standards for online community self-governance. Its products include the Metagov Gateway API, KOI (Knowledge Organization Infrastructure), the Govbase dataset/database, the DAOstar standards body, the Telescope Discord bot, Public AI inference utilities, and Interoperable Deliberative Tools.
Is Metagov a public or private company?
Metagov is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Metagov founded?
Metagov was founded in 2019. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Metagov based?
Metagov is headquartered in Pittsburgh, United States, in the North America region.
How does Metagov make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Individual Donations are the primary driver. The others are foundation and Institutional Grants and web3/Crypto Ecosystem Funding.
Who are Metagov's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Tally, Snapshot, Gitcoin, Open Collective, Aragon and BlockScience. Internet Archive is listed as an others. Emerging players are DeepDAO and Computational Democracy Project. Optimism Collective is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does Metagov have an API?
Yes. Metagov is a unified API gateway for digital governance services. It is designed to support rapid prototyping of governance systems, decision-making processes, and social workflows across a range of platforms, from forums to chat services to blockchains. The API is accessible at gateway.metagov.org with an OpenAPI reference available at metagov.policykit.org/redoc/. Developer documentation is at gateway.metagov.org.
What industry is Metagov in?
Metagov's product category is Digital Governance Infrastructure. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAPAGAD, Metaverse Virtual World Platforms (social worlds, land, UGC), with a secondary code of FSAPAGAJ, Interoperability & Asset Bridging for Games (cross-game/cross-chain assets). Its NAICS code is 541720 and its SIC code is 7372.