What Cicero does

Cicero is a Philadelphia-based political geography data service operated by Azavea Inc. and currently owned by Melissa. Founded in 2006, it maintains a daily-updated, hand-curated database of elected officials and legislative districts across 9 countries (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and others), spanning all levels of government from national parliaments down to local city councils. The platform provides full-address-to-district matching using coordinate-based boundary overlay, with coverage extending to non-legislative boundaries including school districts, watersheds, Census tracts, and judicial districts.

The company's product suite comprises the Cicero API (RESTful API for programmatic legislator and district lookups), District Match (no-code batch address matching via spreadsheet upload up to 100,000 records), Zip to District files (5- or 9-digit postal code lookup files with monthly updates), and Enterprise Licensing (custom bulk data packages). Native integrations with Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack and CiviCRM embed Cicero data into nonprofit CRM workflows, while third-party data partnerships with ESRI ArcGIS, Google Maps, and the U.S. Census Bureau underpin the geospatial engine. Documented performance includes 99.99% claimed API uptime, a rate limit of 200 calls per minute, and District Match turnaround within hours.

Cicero monetizes through usage-based API credit purchases, per-record District Match fees, multi-year enterprise licensing agreements, and one-time zip file licenses, with automatic discounts for nonprofit, government, and educational buyers. Its customer base spans hundreds of organizations, from small advocacy nonprofits and civic-tech startups (Phone2Action, UJOIN) to Fortune 500 enterprises (Facebook), with primary segments in advocacy organizations and government/education institutions and secondary segments in technology companies and large enterprises. Go-to-market is API-first and product-led for SMBs and developers, with custom enterprise licensing for high-volume accounts.

Name

Cicero

Legal name

Cicero (operated by Azavea Inc.)

Website

https://cicerodata.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Cicero operates a hand-curated, daily-updated database of elected officials and legislative districts across 9 countries, offering API, spreadsheet, and bulk-data products that match addresses to political geographies for advocacy nonprofits, civic-tech firms, and large enterprises.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Legislative and Civic Data Services

NAICS

Executive, Legislative, and Other General Government Support (921), Legislative Bodies (921120), Other General Government Support (921190)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Electoral Support & Election Observation (BPADAGAA)

Keywords

• Legislative data API
• Elected officials database
• Address district matching
• Civic technology data
• Political geography software

Headquarters

HQ city

Philadelphia

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. API Credits (Usage-Based): Customers purchase credit buckets that are deducted per API call. One credit per call to official, legislative_district, nonlegislative_district, or map resources. Credits expire after one year. Commercial and nonprofit/government/education pricing tiers with volume discounts.
2. District Match (Per-Record): Spreadsheet-based address matching service priced per row and per data type stamped. Customers upload up to 100,000 addresses and receive results stamped with districts and/or official contact information. Pricing varies by district types (national, state senate, state house, local) and data options (districts only vs. districts + officials + social media).
3. Enterprise Data Licensing: Custom bulk data licenses for organizations needing maximum flexibility. Completely customizable data packages with flexible delivery schedules, multiple formats, and automatic secure file transfers. Designed for enterprises with high-volume needs requiring custom pricing.
4. Zip to District Files: 5 or 9 digit zip code to district lookup files. Sold as customized data files with monthly updates. Pricing varies based on geographic coverage, match type (centroid vs. population-based), and delivery format.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Cicero maintains the most accurate database of elected officials and legislative districts worldwide and sells programmatic and bulk access to it. Its core products match street addresses (and zip codes) to legislative districts at national, state, and local levels across 9 countries, returning verified elected-official contact details and social-media accounts. Offerings include a REST API, a batch spreadsheet service (District Match), zip-code lookup files, and custom enterprise data licenses.

Product overview

Cicero offers a suite of products centered on its democracy database containing elected officials and legislative district boundaries. The core offerings are the Cicero API (programmatic access for developers), District Match (batch spreadsheet processing), Zip to District (postal code lookup files), and Enterprise Licensing (custom bulk data packages). The API serves as the foundation that powers both District Match and CRM integrations with Salesforce NPSP and CiviCRM. Data coverage spans 9 countries including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, with all levels of government from national parliaments to local city councils. Social media account data includes 12 verified account types. The company emphasizes daily data updates by human researchers rather than automated scrapers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• District Match: Upload a spreadsheet of addresses and get them stamped with legislative districts and legislator contact information
• Cicero API
• Zip to District
• Enterprise Licensing
• Cicero Salesforce NPSP Integration

Products and services

• Cicero API

Quantifiable outcome

• 10% more people matched to districts and chapters compared to previous methods
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability2 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• MelissacoreOthersMelissa is the parent company that owns Cicero. Melissa is a data quality and identity verification company. Cicero operates as a product line under Melissa's portfolio.
• StripeminorOthersStripe processes credit card payments for Cicero API credit purchases and District Match payments. PCI-compliant payment processing.
• Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP)coreTechnology or IntegrationNative integration enabling automatic legislative district matching for Salesforce NPSP users. Once activated, updates records with congressional, state, and local districts for every verifiable address. Built by Salesforce developers.
• CiviCRMcoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration enabling automatic school and legislative district information for CiviCRM contacts. Promoted through CiviCRM blog and community ecosystem.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Melissa: Melissa is the parent company that owns Cicero (via Azavea). It is a broader data quality and identity verification provider serving enterprise customers. Comparable as Cicero's parent, and as a broader incumbent that can bundle Cicero with address verification and identity resolution offerings.
• Granicus: Granicus is a government technology platform providing communications, workflow, and constituent engagement software to public agencies. Comparable as a broad incumbent in the civic tech/government data space, with overlapping customers in state and local government.

Direct peers

• Open States: Open States aggregates state-level legislator data and bills across all 50 US states, offering an API and bill tracking. Directly competes with Cicero on address-to-legislator matching and civic data APIs, with overlapping nonprofit and advocacy customers.
• GovTrack.us: GovTrack tracks the US Congress with bill status, legislator voting records, and contact information, and exposes much of this via API. Comparable to Cicero for federal-level legislator lookup and civic engagement use cases.
• ProPublica Congress API: ProPublica provides a free Congress API covering members, bills, votes, and statements. Directly comparable to Cicero's legislator data API, though narrower in scope (federal only, no address matching).
• Quorum: Quorum is a public affairs software platform providing legislative tracking, stakeholder engagement, and legislator data for enterprise advocacy teams. Comparable to Cicero on the enterprise licensing tier with overlapping Fortune 500 advocacy customers.
• EveryAction: EveryAction is a nonprofit CRM and digital fundraising platform with built-in legislator lookup features. Comparable to Cicero because both target the same advocacy/nonprofit customer base, with EveryAction potentially integrating Cicero data as one input.
• Ballotpedia: Ballotpedia maintains encyclopedic data on candidates, elections, and elected officials across the US. Comparable to Cicero for elected official information, though Cicero's strength is structured/address-based data versus Ballotpedia's editorial wiki format.
• Vote Smart: Vote Smart (Project Vote Smart) compiles biographical data, voting records, and contact info for elected officials at all levels. Comparable to Cicero for comprehensive elected official data, though with less API-first distribution.

Emerging players

• VoterVoice: VoterVoice is an advocacy and constituent engagement platform providing legislator lookup, action alerts, and grassroots tools for nonprofits and associations. Comparable to Cicero on the District Match / address-to-legislator use case for advocacy organizations, often serving as an alternative or downstream consumer.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/CiceroAPI
• GitHubgithub.com/cicero-data

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 Cicero