FedBid

History

FedBid was founded in 1999 as FedBid.com, a division of privately owned Procurement Technologies, Inc. Procurement Technologies initially raised over $5 million in private investment and launched the FedBid.com online marketplace in June of 2000, but was forced to shutter operations by December 2000.

In 2001, the FedBid online marketplace reopened under the ownership of Advance Technology, Inc., which changed its name to FedBid, Inc. in 2004. The new FedBid expanded the focus of the online marketplace from U.S. Federal government purchase card orders to purchase order (PO) transactions for bigger purchases of commercial items (including commodity-type goods and simple services).

After a year long “pilot” program with the U.S. Department of State (DOS), FedBid received its first government contract in 2002, with help from the Small Business Administration (SBA). The success with DOS lead to additional government contracts with the General Services Administration (GSA), Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Treasury, Department of Commerce (DOC), Department of Energy (DOE), and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Agency demand continued to drive opportunity for FedBid to support additional product and service categories, including security equipment, medical equipment and supplies, and professional labor services. This growth also provided the opportunity for FedBid to facilitate purchases made through Government-Wide Acquisitions Contracts (GWACs) such as the GSA Schedule, NIH ECS III, and NASA SEWP III as well as Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs).

In 2004, FedBid began interfacing with www.FedBizOpps.gov (FBO), which increased FedBid’s awareness among the seller community and helped drive seller registrations to more than 100 per week.

In 2005, FedBid received a total of 15 contracts from government agencies, including a GSA Schedule 70 contract, a re-compete with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Transportation Security Administration, and a task order award from the General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service.

Since then, FedBid has been awarded numerous additional contracts across the Federal market space, rolled out across Army installations nationwide, and selected as the exclusive reverse auction competition method under the DHS FirstSource contract. In 2009, FedBid began pilot programs at a number of Fortune 1000 companies and made its entrée into the Higher Education Market, receiving award from University of Tennessee and beginning pilot programs at other institutions.

To date, thousands of public sector and commercial procurement professionals have used FedBid to procure billions of dollars worth of commodities and simple services from tens of thousands of businesses around the U.S.