The 2025 election cycle showed what’s possible when technology, organizing, and innovation scale up to meet voters where they’re at. Higher Ground Labs’ portfolio companies were at the center of that work—powering programs, experiments, and infrastructure that campaigns relied on to reach voters, engage communities, and drive wins. 

From personalized outreach tools to creator infrastructure to deep canvassing apps, these companies supported victories in key races with national implications across Virginia, New Jersey, New York, California, and more.  

Below, we have spotlighted some of the impact our portfolio companies have made this year. 

Highlighting the HGL portfolio’s 2025 impact

BallotReady (HGL1) tracked 100k+ open seats and ~600 ballot measures across 24 states, ensuring voters had access to clear, reliable information on the candidates and policy questions shaping their communities. Millions used the platform to take civic action year-round. They also deepened partnerships with libraries, chambers of commerce, and major brands, further integrating civic participation tools into everyday life, and continued improving data quality and coverage to keep democracy accessible to all.

BattlegroundAI (2024 investment) increased ad production speed by 95% across text, image, and video, helped 300+ users generate 6k+ text ads and launched the first-ever compliant programmatic image generator. In just three months, Programmagic (their ad generator tool) produced 3k+ image ads, saved 500+ hours, and its Rapid Video alpha cut production costs by 98% while driving measurable impact.

Change Research (HGL2) and its Embold Research business unit conducted research for 147 campaigns and organizations across 43 states and nationally. This included polls for 30 races across the country from mayors and city councils to governors and ballot measures across primary elections, general elections, and special elections. Their insights helped re-elect the mayors of Scranton, PA, Dearborn, MI, and Edison, NJ. They also supported in electing challengers in downballot races in WA and NJ, helping two education-focused ballot measures pass.

Civitech (2019 investment) expanded their voter engagement infrastructure to help campaigns, advocacy groups, and civic organizations connect with voters more efficiently and inclusively. This cycle, they delivered 300k+ mailers to unregistered voters and assisted ~7k voters directly via their call center. New partnerships with advocacy networks, local governments, and national nonprofits demonstrated how Civitech’s infrastructure can power civic participation year-round, including “off” years.

Community (2022 investment) enables trusted, direct communication between leaders and their audiences. Elected officials like Governors Josh Shapiro (PA) and Phil Murphy (NJ) used the platform to share polling and registration reminders, while cultural figures such as Kerry Washington, Misha Collins, and Bobby Berk mobilized communities in CA, NJ, PA, and VA around the elections.

Daisychain (HGL6) partnered with several organizations on structured pilots that tested new AI-powered organizing models. These experiments focused on deploying scalable, personalized 1:1 engagement across multiple channels using responsible AI with real guardrails. They also supported a large-scale GOTV RCT that measured positive impact for personalized GIF texting on voter turnout in a non-presidential election.

DonorAtlas (2024 investment) launched its donor research platform last cycle and has since helped hundreds of campaigns and organizations identify and understand donors. In addition to contributing to multiple electoral victories—including several Virginia House wins and a key red-to-blue flip—they helped fundraising teams save thousands of hours by eliminating the need to chase outdated or scattered donor information.

Grow Progress (HGL2) partnered with 140+ organizations including Planned Parenthood, SEIU, and Forward Majority to run 800+ tests, collecting 1.5M+ interviews. Their platform helped organizations identify persuasive messaging  for turnout and vote choice research in nearly every election across the country, from VA and NJ gubernatorial contests to WI and PA Supreme Court elections. They added 1k+ new messages to its Persuasion Library, expanding it 8k+ tested messages and strengthening evidence-based strategy across the progressive ecosystem.

Hovercast (2021 investment) powered live events across the progressive and advocacy space, including the DNC Chairs’ Candidate Forum on the Future of Technology & Media with HGL, Protect Our Care stream with Sen. Chuck Schumer, and Three’s Company reunion for the John Ritter Foundation. They provided interactive Twitch graphics for Kat Abughazaleh’s congressional campaign, pioneering new ways for candidates to connect and raise money online. Hovercast is also building an easy-to-use, affordable virtual event platform for progressive organizations.

INTRVL (HGL5) supported campaigns with advanced ad performance optimization, playing a key role in 2025’s most competitive races. Their optimized digital audiences and media measurement tools improved Democratic performance nationwide, contributing to major victories in VA, New Jersey, and Georgia. In New Jersey, they partnered with Make the Road NJ to reverse declines among Latino and Spanish-speaking voters using audiences that delivered 60%+ greater program impact. Their Spanish-language score, co-developed with DSPolitical, drove a +1pp increase in mobilization and 300% greater in-language delivery. 

New/Mode (HGL2) supported 500+ organizations, including Color of Change, Bend the Arc, and EveryLibrary, across the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK, helping send 25M+ messages to decision-makers. The platform helped win campaigns on issues from human rights to climate action, including Governor Gavin Newsom’s signing of landmark legislation extending California’s cap-and-invest program through 2045. New/Mode also surveyed 1k+ progressive campaigners and distributed strategic insights on leveraging emerging social platforms for advocacy.

Oath (HGL6), a political advising platform that empowers Democratic donors to maximize their impact, provided strategic funding guidance across the most critical 2025 priorities including: $1M+ toward the Yes on 50 ballot initiative; $1M+ to campaigns and infrastructure supporting VA and NJ gubernatorial candidates; 20k+ individual donations totaling $1.5M+ for critical House of Delegates races; $500k+ to court races; and $100k+ to Public Service Commission races.

OpenField (HGL3) partnered with the DNC to pilot their platform in three states, including the Virginia Coordinated Campaign, powering student organizers on college campuses to double their contact rates. Half of all contacts captured by the Virginia campaign came from people not found in the official voter file, highlighting OpenField’s database enhancements and voter file design. The platform also deepened adoption with partners like State Voices, Movement Voter Project, and The Movement Cooperative, setting the stage for its expanded use.

People First (HGL3) reached 20M+ Americans through creator-led storytelling that elevated personal narratives on affordability, healthcare, and LGBTQ+ rights. Their work connected with audiences often overlooked by Democrats (e.g., men in TX, moderate women in CA, and blue-collar workers in PA), achieving an average engagement rate of 10.8%, reflecting deep audience connection, and setting the stage for deeper future impact.

Quiller (2023 investment), an AI copilot for creating compelling content, supported hundreds of campaigns and nonprofit organizations in producing thousands of pieces of fundraising & advocacy content. Teams from the smallest county committees to the largest advocacy organizations in the country relied on Quiller to save many hours every day on content generation while protecting both their data and the integrity of their message.

Relentless (HGL6) harnessed its voter-file-matched social graph to power the first “outside-in” relational program in partnership with For Our Future during the judicial retention elections in PA. The program generated 22.6k+ vote plans and 40k voting conversations with targeted voters. Relentless also ran volunteer relational programs in VA, GA, and PA, while piloting new features in its Rally platform, including voter registration, relational advocacy, and downballot oriented “Relational Slates.”

Social Currant (HGL6) helps nonprofits, organizations, and campaigns collaborate with creators to reach audiences more effectively. They built and executed a statewide content-creator strategy for the Spanberger for Governor campaign and major advocacy organizations across VA. The program combined slow-burn narrative engagement with rapid-response “war room” content around the gubernatorial debate, driving millions of views and hundreds of thousands of engagements. Creators amplified messages across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Discord, X, and Substack, turning apolitical content into political activism. This strategy contributed to Democrats’ historic victories, serving as a playbook for next year’s campaigns.

SoSha (HGL5) helped Democrats and allied organizations amplify progressive causes on social media, generating 65M+ impressions across Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and X. Grassroots supporters shared 160k posts in support of key campaigns and causes, including the No Kings protest, California’s Proposition 50, and GOTV efforts across multiple states including VA, NJ, NY, and PA, in coordination with the DNC. Empower Project and Red Wine and Blue also used SoSha for relational organizing in key states this cycle. Their identity resolution insights revealed that 62% of the audiences reached were Republicans or Independents, 28.9% were people of color, 39% lived in a state with a key election, and 70% were over 40 years old (the age brackets with the highest propensity to vote in odd-year elections). 

Swayable (HGL2) worked with four crucial campaigns— California’s Proposition 50, the NJ and VA Gubernatorial races, and the PA Supreme Court Retention Election—to identify the most effective campaign messages. Through testing, clear winning messages were uncovered, which were then used to boost voter support for Proposition 50, Mikie Sherrill (NJ), Abigail Spanberger (VA), and the three Democratic-elected Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justices. The successful application of these persuasive messages, identified via Swayable’s tests, led to all four campaigns triumphing on election night.

Warchest (HGL3) assisted hundreds of races, from mayoral to gubernatorial races, in collectively managing hundreds of millions of budget this cycle. They played an important role in the victories of Abigail Spanberger, Jay Jones, the VA House, and Mary Sheffield. Since the campaign budget serves as a strategic playbook, most clients regularly checked their Warchests right up until the polls closed. Warchest is excited to soon introduce Warchest Compliance for Federal PACs.

Higher Ground Labs (HGL) is a venture fund and ecosystem builder investing in technology for political progress. We invest in and support companies that advance political progress from pre-seed to exit. 

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