Led · Equity · Jan 2018

Element is a messaging app built atop the decentralized, open-source Matrix protocol and is available as on-premise software or a cloud platform. The company acquired Gitter last year to bring more users and features into its product. Element serves large organizations and public-sector customers—examples include the French government (covering some 5.5 million civil servants), Dataport, and BWI—and reports about 10 government engagements. Product development plans include expanding technology for large organizations, investing in peer-to-peer architecture to eliminate the need for servers, and building decentralized voice and videoconferencing services. Financially, cloud revenues grew 300% in the last 12 months (the company did not disclose absolute figures), and Element has raised $48 million to date. Matrix usage is up 190% year-over-year to 75,000 deployments and 35 million addressable users, while Element’s own servers host about 1.2 million active users. Founded in 2017, New Vector develops Matrix, an open-source protocol and ecosystem that lets governments, businesses and individuals run their own secure communication infrastructure while interconnecting via the global Matrix network. The company builds Riot (its flagship Matrix-based messaging app) and Modular (a Matrix-based hosting/SaaS platform), and contributes significant development to the Matrix open source project. Matrix has an extensive installed base, including the French government deployment serving 5.5 million civil servants, enterprise users such as Mozilla, and around 15.8 million users in total. New Vector has teams between London and Rennes, France. With Riot having launched end-to-end encryption by default, the company plans to use its latest investment to improve Riot’s user experience and expand Modular. New Vector commercialises Matrix, an open-source, decentralized communication network that offers end-to-end encryption and lets users retain ownership and control of their data. The company builds Matrix-based apps and services intended as alternatives to incumbent messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Slack. Founded in 2017 by the original Matrix developers, New Vector aims to drive commercial adoption of the protocol. It has announced $8.5 million in funding to scale its services. The Matrix network has grown 400% to 11 million users and 40,000 deployments. Deployments include the French government, the US government, Wikimedia and KDE. Management says the company plans to capitalise on inbound interest from governments and security-conscious enterprises to expand adoption. New Vector, based in London, UK and Rennes, France, develops Matrix, an open standard for secure, decentralized real-time communication. Led by co-founder and CEO Matthew Hodgson, the company offers Riot.im, a secure, interoperable, open-source messaging app, and Modular, an app store for Matrix. Its platform is built to give users control over hosting their data and to remove friction when switching between apps. Matrix enables interoperability with external networks including Slack, IRC, Twitter, and Gitter. The company plans to use the funds to progress the Matrix standard further and to grow Riot.im into a mass-market ready secure open-source communication platform. Status.im migrated its community from Slack to Riot.im prior to investing.