Element
Verified“UK-run, EU-deployed: sovereign by design, not by jurisdiction.”
- Ownership
- Private, no listing
- Scale
- 200M+ Matrix users
- EU footprint
- 43+ EU public-sector deployments
- Software
- Open source (AGPLv3)
61 = midpoint of Control 47 & Data 75
Sovereignty Quadrant
Control ↑ who owns & governs the company · Data → where your data lives. Every dot is a company — click to open it.
Every number below traces to 16 sourced facts across 12 independent sources, last verified 2026-06-12. 4 open questions hold confidence at 72% — they lower confidence, never the score.
Control ↑
Who legally and economically controls the company
Legal & Jurisdiction
38
Incorporated and HQ'd in the UK, which post-Brexit is a third country outside EU jurisdiction; EU reach comes only via German and French operating subsidiaries and GDPR via the UK adequacy decision.
Why 38? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
The operating company is Element Creations Limited, registered in England & Wales, company number 10873661, registered office in London.
Companies House · as of 2026-06-12
The company was renamed from New Vector Limited to Element Creations Limited on 17 October 2025; incorporated 19 July 2017.
Companies House · as of 2026-06-12
Element operates EU legal entities Element Software GmbH (Germany) and Element Software SARL (France), plus Element Software Inc (US), giving it direct EU establishment.
Element (About) · as of 2026-06-12
Element describes itself as a European company and markets to EU governments on a digital-sovereignty basis, but is not EU-incorporated.
Element blog · as of 2026-06-12
Control & Ownership
55
No shareholder holds significant control (>25%) per Companies House, so no foreign voting majority; founders (British/French) remain directors, but the cap table and one board seat are US investors and the firm is privately held with no EU public listing.
Why 55? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
Companies House records an active statement that there is no registrable person with significant control over the company (no holder above 25%).
Companies House PSC · as of 2026-06-12
Co-founders Matthew Hodgson (British) and Amandine Le Pape (French) remain directors; the four-person board also includes American Juan Batiz-Benet (Protocol Labs) and Briton Ian Milbourne.
Companies House officers · as of 2026-06-12
Investors include US firms Automattic, Notion Capital, Protocol Labs and Metaplanet; Automattic made a $4.6M strategic investment in 2020.
TechCrunch · as of 2020-05-21
Element is a private limited company with no public stock listing.
Companies House · as of 2026-06-12
Data →
Where your data lives and who can reach it
Data & Infrastructure
78
Core model is customer self-hosting of open-source Matrix homeservers, so EU customers keep data on their own EU infrastructure with no mandatory dependency on Element or a US hyperscaler; managed Element Cloud is optional and the default hosting provider/region is not publicly specified.
Why 78? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
Element lets customers self-host their own Matrix homeserver on-premise, in a private cloud, or air-gapped, retaining full data ownership and choice of geography and jurisdiction.
Element (Data sovereignty) · as of 2026-06-12
Element's software (Element client and Synapse/Matrix homeserver) is open source under AGPLv3/GPLv3, enabling independent EU hosting without vendor lock-in.
Wikipedia (Element software) · as of 2026-06-12
EU government deployments such as France's Tchap and Germany's BwMessenger/BundesMessenger run on government-controlled infrastructure inside national borders.
Element (Matrix in Germany) · as of 2026-06-12
Element offers a managed 'Element Cloud' hosted option, but the default cloud provider and data-residency region for it are not publicly disclosed on the marketing pages reviewed.
Element (Self-hosted or cloud) · as of 2026-06-12
Operations & People
70
Headquartered in London with European founders and a heavily EU/UK-centred customer and deployment base; a US entity and US investors add a transatlantic tilt but the centre of gravity is European.
Why 70? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
Element is headquartered in London and was founded by Matthew Hodgson and Amandine Le Pape, who lead the company as CEO/CTO and COO.
Element (About) · as of 2026-06-12
Element's flagship deployments are European public sector: France's Tchap (~350K daily active users), Germany's Bundeswehr BwMessenger and federal BundesMessenger, plus Sweden, Belgium and others.
Element (Matrix in Europe) · as of 2026-06-12
Element maintains operating staff/entities in Germany and France in addition to its UK base.
Element (About) · as of 2026-06-12
The open Matrix protocol is governed by the independent non-profit Matrix.org Foundation (a UK CIC), separating protocol stewardship from Element the company.
Matrix.org Foundation · as of 2026-06-12
Aligned to the EU Commission’s official Cloud Sovereignty Framework (SEAL, Jun 2026) →
What we don’t know
4 open questions — they lower confidence, never the score
- ?
Where is the managed Element Cloud service physically hosted, and by which provider (EU-owned vs US hyperscaler)?
Element Cloud's default region and provider determine whether its hosted (non-self-hosted) customers get true EU data residency or inherit CLOUD Act exposure; this directly swings the infra score for that customer segment.
- ?
What is the current shareholder cap table — what combined percentage do US investors (Automattic, Protocol Labs, Notion, Metaplanet) hold versus founders and EU investors?
With no PSC above 25%, control looks dispersed, but the precise split decides whether economic/voting power leans US or EU and could move the ownership score up or down by 15-20 points.
- ?
Current headcount, revenue/ARR, and the geographic split of employees.
Confirms how EU-centred operations really are and the company's commercial durability; affects the operations score and overall confidence.
- ?
Does the UK-EU GDPR adequacy decision (and its renewal) still cover Element's EU customer data flows?
If adequacy lapses, UK incorporation becomes a sharper legal-sovereignty liability for EU customers relying on Element-side processing.
EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework lens
The EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework (SEAL) is designed to certify cloud service providers; Element is primarily a software vendor and protocol steward, so the categories below are an analogous mapping for orientation, not an actual SEAL certification.
Strategic
Explicitly positioned around EU digital sovereignty; trusted by EU governments (France, Germany) precisely to reduce dependency on US platforms.
Legal & jurisdictional
Parent company is UK-incorporated (post-Brexit, outside EU jurisdiction); EU reach depends on German/French subsidiaries and the UK-EU adequacy decision.
Data & AI
Self-hosted, end-to-end encrypted Matrix means customers keep full control of data and keys on their own EU infrastructure; no mandatory vendor data processing.
Operational
London HQ with European founders and EU operating entities, but US entity and US investors create a transatlantic tilt; managed-cloud operational location undisclosed.
Supply chain
Open-source stack avoids proprietary lock-in, but self-hosted deployments still rely on whatever underlying compute the customer picks (often a hyperscaler unless they choose EU infra).
Technological
Open Matrix standard governed by an independent non-profit foundation; full source availability and federation make the technology genuinely portable and EU-controllable.
Security & compliance
E2EE by default and deep public-sector security adoption (Bundeswehr, French government); specific EU certifications for the managed offering not verified here.
Environmental sustainability
No environmental or data-centre sustainability disclosures reviewed for this profile.
EU alternatives
A French government Matrix deployment built on Element's open stack — proof the protocol delivers EU sovereignty, but it is a public-sector service, not a commercial vendor you can buy.
Berlin-founded E2EE collaboration platform marketed to EU governments; a true EU-incorporated peer, though it has US entities/investors and a different (non-federated) architecture.
Because Element is open source and self-hostable, an EU organisation can run it entirely on EU-owned infrastructure (e.g. via a German Matrix host), achieving sovereignty independent of Element's UK incorporation.
How the method works
Methodology v2 (provisional): the score is the midpoint of two axes — Control (who owns and governs the company) and Data (where your data lives and who can reach it). Each axis is scored only on verified evidence; unknowns reduce confidence, never the score. Every input below is sourced; the weights and judgments are open to challenge.
Spotted an error? Every claim is sourced — challenge it and we correct the record.
- 2026-06-12 — Initial golden profile, authored from primary sources (human + AI review).
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Verified 2026-06-12 · Human + AI joint review (sources independently checked) · Methodology