Plains Ventures Leads $1M Seed Round in Ordinal, Helping Municipalities Work Smarter with AI

OKLAHOMA CITY, Sept. 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Plains Ventures today announced it has led a $1 million seed round in Ordinal, an AI-powered research assistant built for local governments. The round also included participation from Winrock International and The Venture Center Arkansas Fund.

Founded by Jacob Herrington, Nick Spinazze, and Jacob Eubanks, Ordinal is transforming the way municipalities operate by providing instant, accurate answers from city documents, codes, and records. Using a secure retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) model, Ordinal grounds every response in verified sources, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and compliance. With employees in some municipalities spending nearly 40% of their work week on information retrieval, Ordinal's platform dramatically reduces wasted time, improves decision-making, and helps governments better serve residents.

Plains Ventures first connected with Ordinal during the 2025 VC Immersions event in Northwest Arkansas, hosted in partnership with the Northwest Arkansas Council. The team was immediately impressed by the product, the customer response, and the founders' ambition.

"Ordinal's product is intuitive and practical, which lowers the barrier to adoption in a sector where technology uptake is often slow, as evidenced by their exciting early traction," Matt Hickman, Investment Principal at Plains Ventures, said. "With a smart go-to-market strategy, an ambitious founding team, and a technology that delivers immediate value, Ordinal is one of the most promising govtech companies in the country. We see this team making a positive impact on the way that government agencies serve their people, hopefully bringing back civic trust and shaping a more positive future."

That perspective is echoed by Ordinal's founders, who emphasize that Plains has gone beyond providing capital.

"Plains Ventures has been more than an investor; they've been a true partner," said Jacob Herrington, co-founder of Ordinal. "From opening doors with potential customers to helping us refine our sales playbook, their support has made a measurable difference in how quickly we're scaling."

Ordinal has already deployed its solution in multiple municipalities, including Sallisaw, OK; Decatur, IN; Lowell, AR; Benton County, AR; La Quinta, CA; Pea Ridge, AR; and Willard, MO, with a rapidly growing pipeline. The company plans to use this funding round to expand its customer base, enhance its public-facing chatbot, and roll out additional features to further streamline civic operations.

About Plains Ventures
Plains Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage companies solving high-value problems. With a proven infrastructure of capital, experience, and network, Plains Ventures helps entrepreneurs succeed and delivers high risk-adjusted returns to its investment partners.

SOURCE Plains Ventures