FSH Technologies raises $25M to replace government IT systems and hourly consulting firms. 22 August 2026 Key Takeaways * FSH Technologies raised $25M, taking on consulting firms and PE-backed vendors. * The funding round comes after FSH's ARR grew 7x in Q2 2026 and revenue jumped 1,340%. * FSH plans to expand into all 50 states within a year, grow from 11 to 45+ employees, and scale its platform with the funding. For decades, cities and school districts bought software by hiring a consulting firm and paying by the hour. FSH Technologies raises $25M to replace this consulting method for speedy results. The Philadelphia-based govtech company announced $25 million in total funding. That funding includes a $20 million investment led by Lachy Groom. He was an early investor in big software companies like Figma, Notion, Ramp, and Lattice. Acrew Capital co-led. Other firms like Operator Partners, Contrary, and Cooley also invested, along with several individual investors. Before this, FSH raised $5 million from a group that included Contrary, Acrew, and General Catalyst. The new capital will fund a nationwide expansion. FSH plans to go from 4 cities to all 50 states within the year. The $160 billion problem that FSH solves. Cities, states, and schools spend about $160 billion a year on technology. Right now that money mostly goes to two types of companies: * Consulting firms charge by the hour, so the longer they take, the more they make. * Software companies that get bought by investment firms, then collect fees without improving the product. Lilly Chen, founder and CEO of FSH believes that per-hour billing is why consulting can never lead to government efficiency. As a response, FSH built the opposite model. Chen explained that "we only grow when a city or school district loves our solution and expands the scope, so the incentive is to build something that works, not to stretch out the invoice." Proof FSH works in the real world. FSH builds software to replace outdated government systems. The pitch is simple. If the software works, agencies buy more of it. If it doesn't, they don't. That alignment is already showing up in the numbers. Once FSH started pushing to expand in Q2 2026, their recurring revenue grew 7 times over. And in about a third of their existing clients, potential business shot up by 1,340%. They're now aiming for $450 million a year in revenue by 2028. The traction is also in crisis moments. Pittsburgh Public Schools switched to FSH after their old software company had a security problem that exposed student information. Buffalo made the switch too, after using an old system for years that just couldn't keep up. In Philadelphia, a new city tax caught thousands of small businesses off guard. FSH put together a support program in 30 days that helped more than 1,000 businesses file in 13 languages. Speed is the point. The government doesn't need another 18-month consulting engagement. What comes next for FSH. FSH is currently operating in Buffalo, Denver, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. With the new funding, it's going nationwide. The product roadmap expands too. Beyond core city and school district systems, FSH is adding EMS and police scheduling, transit management, and case management. The goal is to replace the patchwork of legacy tools with one platform that works by default. Most of the $25M will go to product, sales, and hiring. FSH plans to 4x its team. They're mainly hiring engineers to build the product, designers to make it easier to use, and people to work directly with cities and schools. Investors are betting that govtech needs founders who are willing to do the unglamorous work. I'm a crypto writer with 4+ years of experience passionate about turning big, technical ideas into content anyone can understand. From blockchain to stablecoins to everything in between, I enjoy helping readers stay informed in a space that never stops moving. Disclaimer VentureBurn is a media platform covering the latest in cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, venture capital, and the startup ecosystem. Opinions expressed on VentureBurn are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment advice. Before making any high-risk investments in digital assets or emerging technologies, readers should conduct their own due diligence. All transactions and financial decisions are made at your own risk, and any losses incurred are solely your responsibility. VentureBurn does not endorse or recommend the buying or selling of any digital assets and is not a licensed investment advisor. Please note that VentureBurn may participate in affiliate marketing programs.

In 2021, a former Buddhist monk who was a software engineer at Meta 'accidentally' founded a startup that now competes with Accenture. TOI Tech Desk / TIMESOFINDIA.COM / Updated: Aug 20, 2026, 18:44 IST 2 Comments Image credit: LinkedIn A former Buddhist monk who later worked as a software engineer at Meta accidentally became a startup founder after a pandemic-era hackathon with childhood friends. In 2021, Lilly Chen and three friends turned a project they built for fun into FSH Technologies (formerly Contenda), which has since positioned itself to compete with Accenture in government contract bidding. In an interview with Constellary, Chen described the company's beginnings as something she "fell into" rather than a business she had planned to build. Before becoming a founder, she spent two years as a Buddhist monk after leaving high school at 16, living for a period at a monastery in China. She later returned to the US, completed high school and studied mathematics and economics in college before teaching herself to code and working as a software engineer, including a stint at Facebook. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she took leave from Facebook and invited childhood friends to California, where they decided to build a project together. In another Business Insider interview, Chen noted that unlike Accenture, FSH Technologies takes a different approach to government consulting, focusing on end-to-end fixes for administrative systems rather than isolated software projects. The company does not use traditional billable consulting hours or a conventional sales-and-consultant structure, instead relying on hands-on builders to address processes, procurement rules, and other operational challenges. Lilly Chen's path from Buddhist monk to software engineer. Chen said she left high school at 16 after dealing with a chronic illness and spent about two years as a monk, including two to three months at a remote monastery in China. The head monk eventually asked her whether she actually wanted to remain there, prompting Chen to reconsider her plans. She returned to the US, re-enrolled in high school and later attended college, where she studied mathematics and economics. Although she had considered pursuing a PhD in economics, financial responsibilities led her to seek employment instead. Without a computer science degree, Chen taught herself programming through online resources and coding exercises. Her first software engineering position was as a DevOps engineer at a gaming AI startup, after which she worked at Facebook building CI/CD pipelines for machine-learning engineers. Contenda's startup journey began with a hackathon. Chen said the group initially had no plan to start a company. During her leave from Facebook, she and her friends began playing video games and decided to recreate the hackathon experience they had enjoyed in college. The group built a project to help Twitch streamer Ludwig with subscriber retention. After contacting him, they agreed to provide the service for $1 per subscriber for a month, during which he reached 200,000 subscribers. The project led the group to speak with investors. Chen said the founders initially had reservations about leaving their existing paths, particularly because some of them were still in college and she was concerned about maintaining her family's financial stability. They ultimately accepted their first pre-seed funding of $1 million in March 2021. The TOI Tech Desk is a dedicated team of journalists committed to delivering the latest and most relevant news from the world of technology to readers of The Times of India. TOI Tech Desk's news coverage spans a wide spectrum across gadget launches, gadget reviews, trends, in-depth analysis, exclusive reports and breaking stories that impact technology and the digital universe. Be it how-tos or the latest happenings in AI, cybersecurity, personal gadgets, platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and more; TOI Tech Desk brings the news with accuracy and authenticity. End of Article