It is still surprising that in the 21st century, with the technological advances available, many votes continue to be carried out by show of hands or by depositing ballots in a ballot box. As an entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience, David Montserrat set out to put an end to this anachronism. Montserrat hired a research group from the University of Girona to apply blockchain technology to the digitalization of electoral processes, guaranteeing the security, privacy and traceability of the votes. The result is éKratos, “a startup specialized in enabling electoral processes to be carried out electronically,” in the entrepreneur’s words.
For the founding of the company, Montserrat trusted her friend Ramón Pons, who is in charge of the commercial management, and her lawyer Juan Ignacio Iturregi, responsible for the legal part of the company. éKratos was born in 2019, just before the covid pandemic, and began to develop its activity in 2021. Since then, the emerging company has participated in nearly thirty consultations and electoral processes in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Andorra. Some of the users who have already tested the telematic voting platform are the Port of Barcelona, ??Comisiones Obreras, the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals, the Consell Escolar de Catalunya, the Col·legi de Professionals de la Ciència Política i la Sociology de Catalunya and some town councils, such as those of Mollerussa or Rubí, among others.
The development of the solution has involved an investment of 600,000 euros to date, between own resources and an Enisa loan of 130,000 euros. Currently, the partners are finalizing the launch of a model
of software as a service (SaaS) “which should facilitate our internationalization,” explains Montserrat. In parallel and in order to promote the commercialization of its platform on a global scale, éKratos has just opened a financing round in which the founding partners plan to raise half a million euros. On the other hand, the startup is awaiting public aid from the Tecnio center linked to the metaverse, which will allow them to hire a research group from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya to continue improving their solution.
Based in Barcelona and incubated by La Salle Technova, the startup owes its name to the ‘e’ in electronic and the Greek word kratos, which means governance. The co-founders expect to end the current year with a turnover of half a million euros.
