153 lines
8.3 KiB
Markdown
153 lines
8.3 KiB
Markdown
+++
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title = "New Vector raises $8.5M to accelerate Matrix/Riot/Modular"
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path = "/blog/2019/10/10/new-vector-raises-8-5m-to-accelerate-matrix-riot-modular"
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[taxonomies]
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author = ["Matthew Hodgson"]
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category = ["In the News"]
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Hi all,
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Massive news for the Matrix ecosystem today: [New Vector](https://vector.im) (the
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startup which the Matrix core team formed to fund development in 2017) has
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raised an additional $8.5M of funding in order to speed up Riot/Matrix
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development and expand Matrix hosting via [Modular.im](https://modular.im)!
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The new funding comes in the form of a Series-A equity investment in New
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Vector from three of the top venture capital funds in London. The round is
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led by [Notion](https://notion.vc) - a fund set up by the founders of
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MessageLabs, who many will know as one of the leaders in secure hosted email
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services. Notion's long history with email means they immediately clocked the
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potential of Matrix's mission to build a new open global communication network -
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after all, Matrix aims to provide a worthy replacement to email (and the
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phone network, for that matter!). Joining Notion in the round is [First
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Minute](https://firstminute.capital) - a fund set up by the founders of
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Lastminute.com (arguably the UK's most famous original dotcom), and
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[Dawn](http://dawncapital.com/) - one of the largest SaaS tech specialist
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funds in Europe (famous for backing iZettle, Mimecast, Neo4J and many more).
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The last funding round in Jan 2017 from Status was instrumental in stabilising
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the big 1.0 release of Matrix and exiting beta in June; creating the
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Matrix.org Foundation as a neutral custodian for the standard; stabilising and
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optimising Synapse; redesigning Riot’s user interface; bringing in a full-time
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professional UI/UX designer to the team; supporting the huge amount of
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encryption work required to turn on E2EE by default (cross-signing, key
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backups, device verification, e2e search, the pantalaimon e2e daemon etc);
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creating RiotX/Android; and launching the Modular.im hosting platform.
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With today’s new funding, the priorities for Matrix will be:
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* Turning on end-to-end encryption by default for DMs
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* Much better support for grouping rooms into Communities
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* More anti-abuse/anti-spam mechanisms
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* Shrinking Synapse (and/or finishing Dendrite)
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* Canonical DMs (having one DM per user, and have them feel clearly distinct from ‘rooms’)
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* Extensible Profiles
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* Decentralised accounts
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* Threading
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* ...and furthering development on P2P Matrix, so users can have full control of their communications without having to run or trust a server.
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On the New Vector side, this funding will support:
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* A whole new wave of UX improvements to Riot (particularly around onboarding and first time user experience).
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* Making Modular hosting as polished and powerful as possible.
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* Creating a whole new set of next-generation Modular integrations.
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While New Vector’s contributions to the Matrix ecosystem can’t be ignored,
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it’s important to remember that the Matrix protocol and specification itself
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is governed and controlled by the independent and neutral [Matrix.org
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Foundation](https://matrix.org/foundation) and its [extensive governance
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processes](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/blob/master/proposals/1779-open-governance.md).
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We set up the Foundation *very* deliberately to enforce the protocol's
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neutrality, formalise the project's mission, goals and values and hold true to
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them no matter what - specifically to protect the project from conflicts of
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interest with commercial Matrix endeavours, including New Vector.
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That said, New Vector would not be taking money from any investors if they did
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not believe their goals are aligned with Matrix's. To clarify:
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* Matrix exists to create an open secure decentralised communication network and protocol for the benefit of all.
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* New Vector exists to help grow Matrix and be one of many successful companies in the Matrix ecosystem.
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* Tech VCs exist to invest their money in growing companies in order to get a return when the company IPOs or gets bought.
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It turns out that these goals are not incompatible if one understands that the
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potential of the Matrix ecosystem is directly linked to its openness and size
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(hint: funding sources who didn’t understand this self-selected out ;). By
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funding Matrix development and helping the open ecosystem and public network
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grow, New Vector can go provide more Matrix hosting via
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[Modular.im](https://modular.im) and more Government & Enterprise deployments
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via [Vector.im](https://vector.im). Critically, other companies can and do
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build on top of Matrix too - and frankly the more players there are, the more
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valuable the network, and the more value to be shared for everyone (including
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New Vector). This model worked relatively well for the Web, and we believe
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it'll work for Matrix too.
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**Update: the best way to gauge the investment in New Vector is to hear it
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first hand from the investors. Jos from Notion is leading the round, and has
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a [fascinating blog post](https://notion.vc/resources/new-vector-series-a/)
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(written with zero input from Matrix or New Vector folks) to explain where the
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investors are coming from.**
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**Update 2: More excellend [first-hand analysis](https://medium.com/dawn-capital/communications-of-the-future-will-be-open-and-secure-why-we-invested-in-new-vector-2bd8a060faf7) from Dan at Dawn Capital, who does a really deep dive into how they see Matrix and New Vector. Another must read.**
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In this case, all of New Vector's new investors have a background as respected
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tech entrepreneurs, and everyone involved categorically understands that
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Matrix itself is a neutral open source project, and the mission is to help
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build up the whole network to be as successful as possible rather than
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sabotage it by constraining it in any way.
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All in all, it’s great news for the ecosystem: Matrix is 5 years old now, and
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while the project is growing faster than ever (over 300% more active users in
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the last year!) - it's fair to say that we haven't moved as fast as our
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mainstream competition - for instance, Slack is only a year older, and Discord
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is a year younger(!) Obviously much of this is due to Matrix being a
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completely different proposition: we've been creating an open spec; multiple
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client codebases; multiple server codebases; the bridges; a fault tolerant
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decentralised network - not to mention the complexities of decentralised E2E
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encryption. Based on comparing with our endeavours prior to Matrix, we
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estimate building this stuff in an open and decentralised manner takes roughly
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6 times longer.
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But the project is now in a position where the foundations are solid: the
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protocol is out of beta, reference servers and clients are production ready,
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and it’s more than time to make all of this mainstream. We have to redouble
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our focus on user experience and ensure that we compare favourably to today’s
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established alternatives while staying true to Matrix’s principles. Making
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sure there are Matrix apps out there which provide a credible alternative to
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with the likes of Slack and WhatsApp (until they eventually join Matrix, of
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course) is what will make the difference between Matrix being a cliquey FOSS
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curiosity versus really being the natural successor to today’s instant
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messaging, email and phone networks.
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In the end; Matrix needs full-time contributors in order to continue to grow,
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and keeping New Vector funded is a very good way to achieve that ([New Vector
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is hiring!](https://vector.im/careers)). (That said, if any philanthropic
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billionaires are reading this, the Matrix.org Foundation is actively
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soliciting donations to improve Matrix independently of New Vector's efforts -
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particularly around the areas of countering online abuse and disinformation).
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In the meantime, huge thanks to Jos at Notion for believing in Matrix and
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leading this funding round in New Vector - and huge thanks to the other
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investors who saw the potential! And most of all, thank you to all those
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supporting Matrix, whether by donating to the Foundation, promoting and using
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the protocol, or contributing code to the ecosystem. You are the ones keeping
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the dream alive :)
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You can read things from the NV angle over at https://blog.vector.im/8-5m-to-accelerate-matrix/.
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We hope you’re as excited as we are to open a whole new chapter as Matrix
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picks up yet more momentum :D
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-- Matthew, Amandine, and the whole Matrix team
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