FiscalNote Holdings, Inc., or commonly FiscalNote, is a publicly traded software, data, and media company headquartered in
Washington, D.C. The company was founded by
Timothy Hwang, Gerald Yao, and Jonathan Chen in 2013. FiscalNote provides software tools, platforms, data services, and news through the FiscalNote Government Relationship Management (GRM) service, its core product.
The company also uses an artificial intelligence platform to analyze proposed U.S. legislation based on key phrases, comparison to similar bills, lists of strengths and weaknesses, a timeline of the committees it has passed, information about the bill's sponsors, and past legislator voting records.
In July 2018, FiscalNote acquired CQ Roll Call, a publishing company that produces several publications, including
Roll Call and CQ (formerly
Congressional Quarterly), that cover legislative processes, policies, and elections in the United States Congress.
In July 2022, FiscalNote launched FiscalNote ESG Solutions, a suite of services designed to assist organizations in meeting
environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) targets.
History
FiscalNote was founded in 2013 in
Sunnyvale, California, by
Timothy Hwang, Gerald Yao, and Jonathan Chen, all former schoolmates at
Thomas S. Wootton High School in
Rockville, Maryland
Rockville is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, and is part of the Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census tabulated Rockville's population at 67,117, making it the fourth ...
. Hwang, who had just finished his junior year at
Princeton, brought Chen and Yao together to
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...
to pitch the company to investors. The company was founded in a
Motel 6, where early employees Dan Maglasang and Dev Shah worked to build the product.
In May 2017, FiscalNote announced its initial expansion outside the U.S., providing data sets for
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
and
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
.
In June 2017,
District of Columbia
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
Mayor
Muriel Bowser
Muriel Elizabeth Bowser (born August 2, 1972) is an American politician who has served as the current mayor of the District of Columbia since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, she previously represented th ...
unveiled a major job training program in partnership with FiscalNote. The program was announced alongside a $750,000 economic development package, introduced as an incentive for the company to stay in DC. FiscalNote moved its headquarters to
1201 Pennsylvania Avenue that year.
In July 2017, FiscalNote announced the availability of data sets for
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
,
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, and the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
.
In 2018 FiscalNote acquired CQ Roll Call, which helped bring stable financial flow with a consistent subscriber base and a competent data set. By adding CQ Roll Call, FiscalNote gained an entryway into the media world and an opportunity to cover what certain bills may mean to subscribers instead of having to interpret the raw data.
In July 2022, FiscalNote unveiled FiscalNote ESG Solutions, a suite of services designed to assist client organizations in meeting
environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) goals. Alongside from the suite's main offering – an artificial intelligence-based platform designed to streamline data collection and management – tools offered include ESG-related news, research, and analysis briefings, expert advisory services, and access to peer discussion communities.
Funding and acquisitions
In late 2013, FiscalNote received early seed money from
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban (born July 31, 1958) is an American businessman and television personality. He is the former principal owner and current minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and co-owner of 2929 Entertain ...
after a cold email from
Timothy Hwang. This was soon followed by an investment from
New Enterprise Associates
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With over $25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of t ...
,
Yahoo
Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, an ...
cofounder
Jerry Yang
Jerry Chih-Yuan Yang (; born Yang Chih-Yuan; November 6, 1968) is a Taiwanese-born American billionaire computer programmer, internet entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc. and founding partne ...
, and
First Round Capital
First Round Capital is a US-based venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies.
Founded by Josh Kopelman and Howard Morgan First Round typically provides seed-stage funding and focuses on po ...
, leading to a total $1.3 million round.
In fall 2014, FiscalNote received $7 million in its first institutional (and second total) financing round. Investors included
AOL
AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc.
The service traces its history to an online ...
founder
Steve Case
Stephen McConnell Case (born August 21, 1958) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist best known as the former chief executive officer and chairman of America Online (AOL). Case joined AOL's predecessor company, Quantum Compu ...
, Visionnaire Ventures (a joint fund between
Taizo Son and
Temasek
Temasek ( or , also spelt Temasik or Tumasik) is an early recorded name of a settlement on the site of modern Singapore. The name appears in early Malay and Javanese literature, and it is also recorded in Yuan and Ming Chinese documents ...
), with participation from
Jerry Yang
Jerry Chih-Yuan Yang (; born Yang Chih-Yuan; November 6, 1968) is a Taiwanese-born American billionaire computer programmer, internet entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc. and founding partne ...
,
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban (born July 31, 1958) is an American businessman and television personality. He is the former principal owner and current minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and co-owner of 2929 Entertain ...
,
New Enterprise Associates
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With over $25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of t ...
,
Winklevoss Capital Management
Winklevoss Capital is a family office founded in 2012 by Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss. The firm invests across multiple asset allocation, asset classes including seed money, seed funding and infrastructure to early-stage startup comp ...
, Enspire Capital, Green Visor Capital (led by former
Visa Chief Executive
Joseph Saunders, and Middleland Capital.
Steve Case
Stephen McConnell Case (born August 21, 1958) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist best known as the former chief executive officer and chairman of America Online (AOL). Case joined AOL's predecessor company, Quantum Compu ...
invested as part of his Rise of the Rest Fund.
In February 2015, FiscalNote announced that it had raised $10 million in a third round of financing. Investors included Chinese social network
Renren
The Renren Network ( zh, s=人人网, hp=Rénrénwǎng, l=Everyone's Network), formerly known as the Xiaonei Network ( zh, c=校内网, hp=Xiàonèiwǎng, l=on-campus network, links=no), was a Chinese social networking service similar to Facebo ...
. The move was a part of a larger move by
Renren
The Renren Network ( zh, s=人人网, hp=Rénrénwǎng, l=Everyone's Network), formerly known as the Xiaonei Network ( zh, c=校内网, hp=Xiàonèiwǎng, l=on-campus network, links=no), was a Chinese social networking service similar to Facebo ...
to diversify beyond its core area of online games and
e-commerce in China
China is the world's largest market for e-commerce. Domestic e-commerce firms have the greatest share of China's market, with foreign companies having a comparatively small presence. The expansion of e-commerce in China has resulted in particular e ...
.
In February 2016, FiscalNote raised another $10 million in a fourth round of financing. The round was led by Green Visor and Visionnaire. FiscalNote later added $5 million to this round with a strategic investment from South Korean conglomerate MoneyToday Media alongside a strategic partnership with its newspaper and television divisions (MTN). This came after FiscalNote's acquisition of MyCandidate in
Korea
Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...
.
In August 2017, FiscalNote acquired 16-year old
Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...
company VoterVoice, bringing 1,100 new customers and expanding into the advocacy space. FiscalNote CEO Hwang announced that the acquisition would be the first in "hundreds of millions".
In January 2018, FiscalNote announced at the
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...
in
Davos
Davos (, ; or ; ; Old ) is an Alpine resort town and municipality in the Prättigau/Davos Region in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of (). Davos is located on the river Landwasser, in the Rhaetian ...
that it had acquired a Brussels-based counterpart called Shungham, giving the company a foothold in the European Union as it seeks to expand globally.
In July 2018, FiscalNote announced that it would acquire ''
Congressional Quarterly'' and ''
Roll Call'' from
The Economist Group
The Economist Newspaper Limited (commonly The Economist Group) is a British media company headquartered in London, England. It is best known as publisher of ''The Economist'' newspaper and its sister lifestyle magazine, ''1843''. The Economist G ...
.
In January 2021, FiscalNote announced it had acquired FactSquared, the parent company of White House tracker
Factba.se.
In February 2021, FiscalNote announced that it had acquired
Oxford Analytica
Oxford Analytica is an international consulting firm providing strategic analysis of world events. It was founded in 1975 by David Young, an American employee of the National Security Council during the Nixon administration.
Clients of Oxford A ...
, a UK-based political risk consultancy and publisher of the Oxford Analytica Daily Brief.
On September 15, 2021, the company announced the acquisition of
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...
-based artificial intelligence company Forge.AI.
In August 2021, FiscalNote acquired Curate, a civic technology company that provides data to help companies monitor risk and provide clarification at the local government level.
In 2022, FiscalNote acquired Aicel Technology, a South Korean alternative data company that specializes in emerging
fintech
Financial technology (abbreviated as fintech) refers to the application of innovative technologies to products and services in the financial industry. This broad term encompasses a wide array of technological advancements in financial services, ...
markets.
in January 2023, FiscalNote acquired Dragonfly Eye Ltd. (“Dragonfly”), a UK-based geopolitical and security intelligence provider of actionable data and analysis delivered through Dragonfly’s SaaS-based, proprietary Security Intelligence and Analysis Service (SIAS) subscription platform and API.
Operations
FiscalNote is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with regional headquarters in
Seoul, Korea
Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...
covering Asia and
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
covering the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
and the
Middle East
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
. Other major offices are in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
,
Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...
,
Gurgaon, India.
FiscalNote operates in multiple languages and had over 1,300 customers and over 21.9 million users as of January 2018.
Advisors and board

FiscalNote's board includes General
Stanley A. McChrystal
Stanley Allen McChrystal (born 14 August 1954) is a retired United States Army general best known for his command of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) from 2003 to 2008 during which his organization was credited with the death of Abu Mu ...
,
Glenn Hubbard,
Alec Ross (author), former
Obama White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
cabinet secretary
A cabinet secretary is usually a senior official (typically a civil servant) who provides services and advice to a cabinet of ministers as part of the Cabinet Office. In many countries, the position can have considerably wider functions and powe ...
and former Deputy Secretary of Labor
Chris Lu, Congressman
Mike Ferguson, Congressman
Glenn Nye, and former publisher of the ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
''
Katharine Weymouth. FiscalNote also added Jayson Kim, General Partner of Legendary Ventures, and Mitch Shue, the former Chief Technology Officer of Morningstar, to their advisory board in 2021.
Recognition
FiscalNote was named to the
CNN
Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
10 in 2014
FiscalNote won the Technology Pioneer Award and Distinction at the annual meeting of the
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...
in 2016.
During the 2017 special presidential election in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
after President
Park Geun Hye was impeached, FiscalNote launched nudepresident.com, matching South Korean voters with their ideal choice for president using artificial intelligence, correctly predicting that President
Moon Jae In
Moon Jae-in (, ; born January 24, 1953) is a South Korean politician and former lawyer who served as the 12th president of South Korea from 2017 to 2022. Before his presidency, he served as the senior secretary for civil affairs and the Chief ...
would be elected. The mobile application received over 5 million users in several weeks.
In late 2017, FiscalNote researchers discovered that millions of comments submitted to the
FCC
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains ju ...
during the
net neutrality
Net neutrality, sometimes referred to as network neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering User (computing), users and online content providers consistent tra ...
debate were forged using
bots
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or alternatively referred to as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are the fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, ...
. Researchers used a variety of
natural language processing
Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of computer science and especially artificial intelligence. It is primarily concerned with providing computers with the ability to process data encoded in natural language and is thus closely related ...
techniques to uncover the anomalies. Ironically, it was later reported that many of those comments were generated by a FiscalNote subsidiary.
FiscalNote regularly uses its data to publish rankings of lawmakers and their effectiveness.
Curate, a technology platform owned by FiscalNote, won a global award for the best global innovation at the 2022 SAAS Awards.
Civic technology
FiscalNote is a tool of
civic technology
Civic technology, or civic tech, is the idea of using technology to enhance the relationship between people and government with software for communications, decision-making, service delivery, and political process. It includes information and commu ...
as it provides organizations or companies with real time governmental policies.
This connects companies to the government, allowing them to take notice of what policies may impact their business and allowing companies to stay in compliance while pursuing future goals.
In addition, FiscalNote could also help the government gain the public's trust by providing transparency in their actions and policies.
FiscalNote could possibly provide insight into more streams of Civic Technology such as providing information to citizens about the different policies representatives are associated with and how that would impact their daily life by voting for them.
Another use of FiscalNote is to utilize the extensive dataset they provide to conduct research about different administrations or ideologies in government.
Controversy
FiscalNote has been criticized for the high price of its service, which critics claim excludes citizens and smaller lobbies that cannot afford the product whilst providing wealthier lobbies with information that leaves them better equipped to protect their clients and self interests.
FiscalNote has also been criticised for putting undue weight on correlations that may not necessarily provide relevant insight as to why a certain bill passed or failed. Additionally, John Wilkerson, a political science professor at the University of Washington, criticises FiscalNote for placing importance onto whether individual bills move forward, rather the policies behind them.
The Economist Group Partnership and 18% Equity
On August 20, 2018, the Group completed the sale of CQ-Roll Call, Inc and Capitol Advantage LLC to FiscalNote, Inc. The Economist Group received $80,000,000 cash, $58,557,176 loan notes (12.6% PIK loan notes payable by February 2024) and a minority 18.2% equity interest in FiscalNote, Inc (46,008 Preference shares in FiscalNote, Inc. valued at $41,443,000).
The Economist Group’s equity interest was reduced by £12m In FY2020 when FiscalNote raised $54m of additional capital to support its next phase of growth.
On December 29, 2020, the Economist Group sold the interests it acquired in FiscalNote, Inc. for £52,974,000 (US$72,000,000), recognizing a loss on disposal of (£37,151,000).
References
{{reflist
Financial software companies
Software companies of the United States
American companies established in 2013
Software companies based in Washington, D.C.
Software companies established in 2013
2013 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Special-purpose acquisition companies