Element Secure Messenger

Country offices.

Element employs people around Europe and North America to ensure it has the best access to talent, making full use of remote working. Element’s offices act as a hub for specific markets, and a meeting point for staff and customers.

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France

Element in France is led by Amandine Le Pape, Element’s co-founder and Chief Operating Officer.

Germany

Element in Germany is led by Dr Patrick Alberts, who is also Element’s Chief Product Officer.

United Kingdom

Element is headquartered in the UK and led by Matthew Hodgson, CEO. UK customers are served from the UK.

United States

Our US customers are served from the US, directly by Element or with a US partner.

We want Element to be for everyone, and we enable
everyone to contribute by being open source.

When it comes to our employees, we work hard to ensure that our culture
welcomes and respects all individuals, and we strive to recruit accordingly.

By embracing diversity we create a better, stronger product for our customers, the community, and all those who recognise the importance of privacy-centric communications.

History.

2014: Matrix is born

Frustrated by fragmented, siloed communication tools and an increasingly centralised web Matthew Hodgson, and Amandine Le Pape divert their team from their day-job at Amdocs to start working on an open source project to create a decentralised open protocol for real time communications. They call it Matrix, and see it as the missing communications layer of the web.

2015: Initial app launches

Matthew and Amandine launched the first Matrix-based app; called Vector.

2016: Gaining traction

Matrix momentum starts to build. The flagship Matrix-based app Vector is rebranded to Riot, reflecting the riot of colour, the diversity they long to see in the messaging industry.

2017: A New Vector

The team spins out of Amdocs! New Vector Ltd is set up as an independent commercial organisation with 12 employees. It raised funds from Status and later other VCs - 70% of the funding was spent on building out Matrix and transferring the IP to the Foundation.

2018: Matrix independence

The Matrix.org Foundation is set up as a non-profit organisation to be the independent custodian of the Matrix project. It has five board directors, including Matthew and Amandine. All servers and SDK IP are directly transferred to the Foundation.

New Vector has a small revenue stream from Matrix-based consulting and government contracts.

2019: Series A funding

New Vector secures Series A funding. Initial revenue focus is on being a SaaS business, called Modular.

Having worked in partnership with New Vector, the French government launches Tchap, its Matrix-based messenger.

2020: Element launch

COVID brings digital communications to the fore and unlocks additional funding. The company builds its commercial team. The Riot app, the SaaS offering and the company itself rebrands to Element.

BWI, in partnership with Element, launches BwMessenger, a Matrix-based messenger for the German Armed Forces.

Matrix enjoys rapid community growth across universities in the DACH region, and beyond.

2021: Matrix adoption

Element raises Series B funding, enabling considerable development for Element products and the Matrix protocol.

Gematik, the German healthcare agency, officially mandates Matrix as the basis of its communications standard; TI-Messenger.

As the world recovers from COVID, public sector organisations are increasingly uneasy with the prevalence of consumer messaging apps across government business and Element sees a strong uptick in public sector business.

2022: Element Server Suite

Element continues to invest heavily (around 50% of its budget) in building out the Matrix protocol and open source implementations, but increasingly systems integrators and services firms ‘freeride’ on Element’s Matrix software.

Element creates Element Server Suite (ESS), a professionalised Matrix-based server distribution that organisations can use to host any Matrix-based solution. Forrester recognises Element as a ‘leader’ in its Secure Communication report.

Sweden’s dSam project and eSam programme recommend Matrix-based communications for the Swedish public sector.

2023: Freerider challenges

Matrix adoption continues to boom, but governments and services firms - intentionally or otherwise - continue to freeride, undermining Element’s ability to sustainably maintain and develop Matrix. Shouldering around 95% of the Synapse server development costs, alongside other core server components and several SDKs, Element moves its server components to the open source AGPL license to support long-term viability.

Element pauses all non-core research and development, and hyper-focuses on serving the public sector, where European governments’ desire for digital sovereignty is increasingly urgent as the geopolitical climate intensifies. Element continues investing in building Element Server Suite for TI-Messenger.

2024: Government subscriptions grow

The success of Element Server Suite sees Element sign subscription-based contracts with NATO ACT, United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC), Sweden’s Försäkringskassan, Germany’s ZenDiS (openDesk), T-Systems and Ridgeline (for a variety of customers including US Department of Defence).

The Matrix.org Foundation runs elections to set-up its first Governing Board to increase its independence and better support the ecosystem. The first Matrix Conference, sponsored by Element, makes its debut in Berlin bringing together over 200 developers, customers and enthusiasts to share learnings and insights.

At the Matrix Conference, Element launches Element X, a complete rewrite of the flagship mobile client, built to out-perform the mainstream alternatives with a radically improved user interface

2025: Element Creations Limited

New Vector Limited changes its name to Element Creations Limited.

Relationship to Matrix.

Element is led by the same team that created the Matrix open standard and employs the experts who designed it.

Element is the leading provider of solutions for Matrix, the open standard for secure, decentralised communication.

While Matrix is governed by the independent, non-profit Matrix.org Foundation with its own managing director, Element remains a leading contributor and has graciously contributed more than 90% of key servers components and SDKs to the project . As the Foundation grows to be sustainable, Element continues to significantly support it financially and in kind.

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Leadership team.

Matthew Hodgson

Co-founder, CEO/CTO

Matthew is co-founder of Element and CEO/CTO, responsible for the technical direction and vision of the company. Matthew is also the technical co-founder of Matrix and a Guardian of The Matrix.org Foundation, the open source project that publishes the Matrix open standard for secure, decentralised, real-time communication. He has a degree in Computer Science and Physics from the University of Cambridge.

Amandine Le Pape

Co-founder, COO

Amandine is co-founder of Element, COO and Managing Director of Element Software SARL in France. She deals with operations across the entire company. She is also co-founder and a Guardian of The Matrix.org Foundation, the open source project that publishes the Matrix open standard for secure, decentralised, real-time communication. Amandine is a member of the European Open Source Academy, where she leads the Business and Impact section. She has an engineering degree in Telecoms, Electronics and Computer Science from CPE Lyon and an EMBA from Rennes School of Business.

Dr Patrick Alberts

Chief Product Officer

Patrick is Chief Product Officer at Element, and Managing Director of Element Software GmbH in Germany. He leads product strategy and development, having previously driven innovation and growth at technology companies across Europe. He is passionate about open technology, digital sovereignty, and making an impact for millions of users. Patrick holds a PhD in Geophysics and Artificial Intelligence from Imperial College London, an MBA from INSEAD in France and an AMP degree from Harvard Business School.

Juho Lahdenpera

Chief Financial Officer

Juho is the Chief Financial Officer at Element, overseeing the company’s financial strategy, planning, and operations. He brings extensive experience in financial leadership across high-growth technology and SaaS businesses, helping to drive sustainable global expansion as Element scales its operations for enterprises and governments worldwide. He is a member of the ICAEW and holds a MBA and business degree from Coventry University.

Neil Johnson

Chief Engineering Officer

Neil is Chief Engineering Officer at Element, leading engineering strategy and delivery. Passionate about scaling technology and people, he draws on experience from high-growth start-ups spanning Telecoms to Search. Neil holds an MEng in Electrical and Information Sciences from the University of Cambridge.

Tom Lant

VP of Customer Success

Tom is VP of Customer Success, delivering expert consulting and tailored services to large organisations deploying Element and the wider Matrix ecosystem. He is dedicated to advancing secure, decentralised, open-source communication by helping partners and customers unlock the full potential of Matrix within their communities and businesses. Tom holds an MEng in Software Engineering from the University of Southampton and brings over a decade of industry experience.

Steve Loynes

VP of Marketing

Steve is VP of Marketing at Element, where he drives brand strategy, product positioning and growth. Element’s ground-breaking technology keeps Steve focused on market education, and building impactful marketing programs that combine business benefits and technological advantages. He brings extensive experience managing marketing and communications for leading technology firms across EMEA and worldwide. Steve is a graduate of University of the Arts London (UAL).

About Element

Giving you the freedom to communicate on your own terms.

International presence.