Paul Allen‘s new fund, Vulcan Capital, just invested $40 million into Scytl to boost the tech behind online elections.
Scytl launched in 2001 in an attempt to replace paper voting ballets with electronic systems. Today, the firm is firmly pushing its online voting service, in an industry which Scytl claims to have 87% market share worldwide.
In all cases — both online and offline — it appears Scytl’s bread and butter is security. Designing an online polling service isn’t difficult, but securing one so that it’s suitable for a high-stakes election (public or private) is an entirely different challenge. To that point, Scytl claims it offers “unique cryptographic protocols…protected by international patents.”
Scytl claims it has “conducted elections in over 20 countries,” with customers like the French Security Agency, the US Air Force Institute of Technology, and a handful of universities.
With its new funds, Scytl plans to invest in new (undisclosed) tech and continue its string of acquisitions; the firm has purchased five companies since launch, including SOE Software, an election management utility with a presence in the U.S.
Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen drops $40M to modernize voting
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