2026 Funding Round
Upgrading democracy's infrastructure for the digital age
SIV.org has been created for citizens of all free governments around the world to be able to quickly, easily, & safely make wise collective decisions.
Already deployed in govt elections
It works for smaller communities
- Harlem's $2M participatory budget
- Canadian First Nation governments using SIV to elect their leaders
- Zcash Foundation governance over funds worth millions
It works when people distrust each other
- In party primaries where members had a history of deeply distrusting election results, voters used SIV then said “This is election nirvana”, and “We were all pollwatchers today”, leading to less fighting & more cooperation
It works under attack
- Top election security researchers red-teamed SIV at DEF CON, the world's largest hacker conference
It works for public office
- SIV ran the largest digital election in US history. The winner was sworn in the next morning as Utah's latest State Senator
150k+ votes cast
from 330+ cities & 25 countries
Investment Opportunity
A rare chance to do immense good for our democracy & build a large sustainable business.
A straightforward business model:
Why is it in the world's interest?
Why do election officials want SIV?
- It's much faster & easier, and saves them money.
- Voters want to be able to vote from their devices, & the best officials want to meet them where they are.
- SIV lets honest election officials prove they're not cheating and their elections are fair.
You're seeing this opportunity early.
This page is a high-level overview. If you're interested in investing, personalized next steps start here.
If you know an excellent person who cares about elections, civic tech, or security, we encourage you to share this page with them too.
Resources
Why SIV?
A letter from founder David Ernst
Why SIV?
A letter from founder David Ernst
Our communities and governments are struggling. In the US, and around the world. Our future seems to be on a questionable path, due in very large part to our subpar collective decision-making systems.
Consider this: the way we citizens shape how our governments act is essentially a one-bit system: re-elect or not. Every 2 to 4 years. In comparison, a one-hour video call moves billions of bits of information.
Our world has been transformed by digital innovation in nearly every domain, yet when we make the most impactful collective decisions, almost no information moves at all.
Our collective intelligence is stuck, held back by centuries-old limitations.
This represents a monumental opportunity we're on the verge of unlocking.
And it's a large financial opportunity too, precisely because the problem is so big. A unique chance to do enormous good — serving free societies — and build a healthy business at the same time.
For the past six years, our team has tackled the hardest security challenges the election community has flagged as historical blockers for digital voting.
We haven't just developed solutions. We've deployed them, and invited top hackers worldwide to break them.
It's held strong, and SIV has now been used by people from 330+ cities across 25 countries, with over 150,000 vote selections cast to date.
It's been used to elect local, state, and national leaders, allocate millions of dollars of funds, and run the largest digital vote for a government official in US history.
Voters consistently love it, and administrators tell us again and again it's the best system they've ever seen.
We're ready for the next level, and we'd love for you to join us in our second funding round.
Threat model: nation-state attacks
The deep computer science problems we've worked to solve
Threat model: nation-state attacks
The deep computer science problems we've worked to solve
For decades, digital voting was correctly considered unsafe for the highest-stakes elections. SIV has built & deployed strong solutions for:
- Verification, even against malware on voters' devices
- Strong cryptographic privacy
- Duplicate voting and ballot stuffing
- Coercion & vote buying risks
- Reliance on computers as ground truth
- Closed systems requiring blind trust
- Highly efficient auditability
Track record
High-stakes elections at local, state, & national level
Track record
High-stakes elections at local, state, & national level
- 1The largest majority-digital vote for a government seat in U.S. history
- 2Sitting Member of Congress elected using SIV
- 3Zcash Foundation governance over funds worth millions
- 4Harlem, New York Rep. allocated a $2M community budget & invited all constituents
- 5Canadian First Nation government used to elect its leaders
- 6Groups with strong pre-existing distrust in US elections used SIV vs paper, & came out saying "This is election nirvana", "We were all pollwatchers today", leading to less fighting & more cooperation
- 7Deployed alongside mail & in-person voting
- 8150,000+ vote selections — used by voters from 330+ cities across 25 countries
- 9Election officials consistently tell us they want SIV because it costs a fraction of their budget, makes elections much faster & easier to administer, voters are asking for it, & they can prove their elections were run fairly
- 10Researchers from top universities actively inspect the SIV protocol and software, including live red-teaming at DEF CON, the world's largest hacker conference
Read about SIV elections & testimonials from voters and election admins: siv.org/case-studies
FAQ
Terms, check sizes, & more
FAQ
Terms, check sizes, & more
1. What are the terms?
Standard post-money capped SAFE. We'd like to use to settle on a valuation that is win-win for both of us.
2. Minimum check size?
3. What is this raise primarily funding?
- Serving the existing market. All governments and political organizations looking for digital voting should know SIV is available and their best option.
- Making the product even better.
Users already praise SIV highly, but there's plenty of room to make it more remarkable, viral, and share-worthy.
Top areas identified: Lower-friction onboarding, better election-admin management, easier verification for voters, and better integration of our advanced security tools.
- Long-term, 100x growth unlock.
The goal is to grow from today's <1% of voters, to 4 billion citizens in democracies worldwide.
This means flipping the status-quo belief that internet voting for government elections isn't secure enough—SIV shows digital voting can be far more secure and verifiable than paper.
We have focused where trust has been hardest to win—top cryptographers and election security experts—and continue to work with them to validate the SIV protocol.
In addition, we continue to organize HACK SIV challenges, DEF CON red-teaming, university partnerships, and work with thoughtful voices online.
Over time, we want millions of technically sophisticated people as advocates to help make SIV the obvious choice across thousands of jurisdictions.
4. What is SIV's corporate structure?
SIV is a Delaware public benefit corporation, a mission-oriented for-profit entity.
Legally, SIV's specific public benefit statement is:
to advance the field of safe digital voting so that people everywhere can quickly and easily make wise collective decisions.
5. Trade-off between profitable corporate governance and civic adoption?
The mission is to put good governance in the hands of billions—so we haven't succeeded until digital voting is available for all citizens.
Enterprise governance isn't the destination. But the two paths complement more than they compete. Our work so far—an insurance board vote, the Zcash governance votes, a major XPrize project, and internal org votes—serve the mission as a means to an end: revenue, legitimacy, and usability lessons.
Government is the harder nut, but it's where our heart is, and ultimately the very big payoff. Individual governments already spend $30M+ on digital voting just for overseas and disability voters, so even today's market sustains a healthy business.
6. How does SIV think about pricing?
We're moving towards 3 revenue tiers:
Community
Free for small groups. Built for lower-stakes decisions. Using SIV with minimal setup: quick, easy way to reach group decision.
For example, friend groups planning events or trips. People are emotionally invested in outcomes, there are lots of decisions to make, the decision-making process needs to happen relatively fast, and everyone wants their voice heard without feeling judged for their opinion.
The free tier is an introduction to SIV. It extends our reach, familiarizes people with the basic concepts and the ease of use.
Pro
Organizations with medium-stakes voting needs, up to a few million dollars in decision-making value. Pro adds stronger one-person-one-vote authentication, stronger privacy tools, and hands-on verification support beyond Community's basic verification.
Pricing includes setup fees and ongoing support. It can be event-specific, or long-term bulk subscriptions, as appropriate.
Such tier is attractive for political parties, conferences, crowd voting contests & awards, enterprise governance, and other innovative governance orgs.
Government
Built for governments that need the highest levels of security. The threat model includes nation-state attacks, sophisticated AI-assisted threats, and deeply motivated insider partisans.
The Government tier includes dedicated hands-on support and customization, setup fees, and per-voter costs. Contracts can range from smaller overseas-voter elections to standard five-year agreements.
The Government tier is what SIV was built for: highest-stakes elections demanding the strongest levels of security.
We started SIV focused on government-grade elections, & believe we have the world's best solutions for that.Along the way, we've discovered medium & small groups who want to use many of SIV's great features for their needs too.