Zencity is Fast Company’s Most Innovative Company for 2025

A post by Zencity's CEO: Eyal Feder-Levy

Back in 2021, we hosted a leadership offsite for our global team in a small town in the north of Israel. It was right after we raised our Series B and the offsite was focused on the future we can help create. One of the activities, led by Michael, our Chief Strategy Officer, was especially helpful in imagining where Zencity can grow. 

“Imagine,” he said, “that Zencity is featured in the prestigious Fast Company Most Innovative Companies list in a few years. What would be the headline? How would we be described?” 

This exercise helped us refine and clarify our vision. Since then, we’ve been focused on a simple yet powerful belief: Truly inclusive, timely, and actionable community engagement is essential for governments to build trust and serve their communities more effectively. 

Today, after years of exciting progress and becoming the world’s largest community engagement platform,  we’re excited to close a great loop. We are honored to be named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2025, joining the ranks of groundbreaking organizations like OpenAI, Nvidia, Airbnb, and Canva that are setting new standards in their industries.

But most of all, this milestone isn’t just about us—it’s about the work of the more than 400 cities, counties, police departments, and public agencies that are transforming public engagement to strengthen their communities.

Why Zencity Earned This Recognition

Declining trust in government is one of the most pressing challenges in modern governance: As trust erodes, the ability to provide core public services—such as public safety, public health, and housing development—becomes more difficult. Research has consistently shown that building trust starts from accurately understanding community needs and priorities.  This is one of the key goals of quality community engagement. 

Bridging the Gap in Community Engagement

While community engagement is such a core function of government in a democracy, it has failed to evolve with modern expectations. Traditional methods—sparsely attended community meetings, paper or phone surveys that reach only a fraction of the population, and slow, bureaucratic processes—have left many voices unheard, providing a skewed view of community needs. 

Zencity has gone further than anyone in eliminating these barriers, making it easier for residents to provide input and for governments to act on it. Our unique use of AI, our leveraging of online access and the way we’ve combined omni-channel input into one has set a new standard for community engagement that is actually inclusive, timely and actionable for government leaders.

And that has yielded meaningful results.

Zencity’s Year of Growth and Impact

This past year has been a remarkable one for Zencity, marked by significant growth, strengthened partnerships, and meaningful community impact. We welcomed dozens of new communities and agencies into our network while deepening relationships with long-term partners. 

Our work spanned key initiatives, from helping Los Angeles address homelessness and assisting Houston in post-Hurricane Beryl recovery to guiding Washoe County toward more accessible engagement and supporting the Chicago Police Department’s 2025 strategic planning. We also contributed to the CALEA accreditation process in Huber Heights, collaborated with Sugar Land residents on citywide initiatives, streamlined communication in Apex, monitored public sentiment in Charles County, and drove engagement in Encinitas.

In the UK, we partnered with new government agencies and the British Transport Police to advance their National Race Action Plan. This growth was further strengthened by a major milestone—our acquisition of Commonplace, a leading UK-based community engagement platform—allowing us to enhance our solutions and impact across the region.

These efforts are just a glimpse of the impact we’ve had the privilege of supporting. As we look ahead to 2025, we are excited to build on this momentum and continue shaping the future of public engagement.

A Transformational Moment for GovTech

Zencity is one of the only govtech companies in history to receive this recognition.

Traditionally, technologies serving government have been slow to innovate, and the public sector has lagged behind the private sector in its capabilities. Zencity is helping governments leap ahead in capability by offering sophisticated AI-powered engagement tools previously only available to elite private-sector companies.

This recognition from Fast Company affirms that public engagement is due for a revolution—and that local governments are leading the way.

The Future: AI-Powered, Seamless, and Smarter Governance

This milestone is just the beginning. Over the next few months, as we continue to expand our AI-driven engagement capabilities, we will make it even easier for governments to:

• Proactively seek and interpret public input with AI that automates data collection and analysis.
• Seamlessly integrate engagement into residents’ daily lives, reducing friction and increasing participation.
• Act with confidence by connecting engagement data with government systems of record, enabling smarter, more responsive governance.

With a network of 400+ agencies using Zencity, we are building an ecosystem where governments can learn from each other in real-time, sharing best practices that improve responsiveness and build trust.

A Shared Recognition & A Call to Action

Lastly, this award isn’t just about Zencity—it’s about the public servants who are leading the charge for a more responsive, modern, and trusted local government.

At a time when skepticism toward institutions is growing, local governments have a choice: continue with the status quo or embrace a future where engagement is real-time, inclusive, and actionable.

The cities, counties, and agencies we work with every day are proving that government can listen, adapt, and serve communities better than ever before.

This recognition is a celebration of that work—and an invitation to all public-sector leaders to join the movement.

Because democracy works best when every voice is heard, every concern is acknowledged, and every decision reflects the people it impacts.

Let’s build that future together.