What Open Source Politics does

Open Source Politics (OSP) is a Paris-based civic technology company founded in 2016 that deploys and customizes open-source software for participatory democracy and public-sector data management, primarily for French and European public institutions. The company's core product stack is built on Decidim, an open-source participatory democracy platform supporting participatory budgets, public consultations, petitions, citizen assemblies, public enquiries, collaborative writing, and voting; Grist, a collaborative spreadsheet / relational-database tool used as a back-office for analysis and project tracking; and Rudi, a decentralized data sharing platform for territorial data ecosystems. OSP deploys these on sovereign French hosting infrastructure (Scaleway in Île-de-France, Ikoula), is GDPR-compliant with DPO declared to the CNIL, and has contributed 200+ improvements to Decidim over its lifetime, making it one of the most active contributors in the Decidim ecosystem.

OSP operates a services-plus-software model: revenue combines professional services (installation, configuration, customization, training, facilitation, synthesis, data analysis), managed services / SaaS hosting (Grist on Scaleway), and a published entry-level productized price point (Voca, a Decidim distribution co-developed with Swiss partner Octree, at €800 HT inclusive of deployment, hosting, training, and support). Customer segments are predominantly vertical — French and European local authorities (collectivités), national parliaments and ministries, audit courts — with secondary segments in territorial data ecosystems (métropoles, intercommunalités), political campaigns and citizen-led lists (an integrated Decidim + Citipo + Qomon toolkit aimed at the 2026 French municipal elections), small associations via Voca, and European/international institutions via EU Horizon-funded projects (MultiPoD, Nets4Dem, iDEM). Go-to-market is direct enterprise field sales plus event-driven presence at Decidim Fest, Europeanlab, and OGP Summit, supplemented by content marketing through the L'InfOSP newsletter, an active blog, and the Club Decidim user community.

In March 2026, OSP was fully acquired by Go Vocal (formerly CitizenLab), a Belgian B Corp that reports 600+ local authority clients worldwide and 48 staff across 26 nationalities; the OSP team was split between continuing Decidim-based participatory work under Go Vocal and contributing to LaSuite.coop, the sovereign office-suite cooperative OSP co-founded in March 2025 alongside IndieHosters, Le Bureau coop, and Yaal. The company is registered as a SARL with €5,000 capital and SIRET 820 412 161 00011 and operates with a small founding team (Valentin Chaput and Virgile Deville as remaining co-founders after the death of co-gérant Olivier Buchotte in February 2025).

Name

Open Source Politics

Legal name

Open Source Politics

Website

https://opensourcepolitics.eu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Open Source Politics is a Paris-based civic technology company that deploys and customizes open-source participatory democracy platforms (Decidim), data management tools (Grist), and territorial data sharing platforms (Rudi) for French and European public institutions; acquired by Go Vocal in March 2026.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Civic Engagement Software

NAICS

Executive, Legislative, and Other General Government Support (921), Public Administration (92)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Public Communications, Transparency & Open Government (BPAIAAAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Democratic Governance & Public Administration Reform (BPADAGAJ), Developer & Open-Source Communities (MPACAJAK)

Keywords

• Civic technology platforms
• Participatory democracy software
• Open source governance
• Digital public consultation
• Collaborative data tools

Headquarters

HQ city

Paris

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Decidim platform services: Installation, configuration, customization, hosting, maintenance, and training services for Decidim participatory platforms serving public institutions and organizations.
2. Grist SaaS and consulting: Grist software instantiation, configuration, SSO setup, custom view creation, and team training services, along with SaaS hosting on French servers.
3. Public enquiry platform services: Complete digital public enquiry solutions combining Decidim (for contributors) and Grist (for commissioners/enquêteurs), with AI-enhanced analysis capabilities.
4. Municipal campaign integrated toolkit: Modular bundled offering combining Decidim, Citipo, and Qomon for participatory municipal campaigns, with optional training and workshops.
5. Voca Decidim deployment: Simplified Decidim deployment via Voca for small organizations at a fixed price of €800 HT, including hosting, initial training, and support.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Open Source Politics deploys, customizes, and maintains open-source participatory democracy platforms (Decidim) and collaborative data tools (Grist, Rudi) for French and European public institutions. The company delivers full-service accompaniment including installation, configuration, hosting on sovereign French infrastructure, training, project management, facilitation, mobilization, synthesis, evaluation, and data analysis across the entire lifecycle of citizen participation projects.

Product overview

Open Source Politics offers a portfolio of open source civic engagement and data management tools centered on Decidim (participatory democracy platform) and Grist (collaborative data platform), complemented by Rudi (territorial data sharing), LaSuite.coop (office collaboration suite), and associated modules including Decidim_app, Voca, and Dembrane partnerships. The company operates a services-plus-software model providing consulting, platform hosting, configuration, training, and ongoing support across France and Europe.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Decidim Open source participatory democracy platform enabling public consultations, citizen proposals, citizen assemblies, petitions, participatory budgeting, and collaborative writing. Used by over 500 organizations globally including major French and European cities and institutions.
• Grist Open source collaborative data tool combining spreadsheet, relational database, and no-code application capabilities. Serves as back-office for participatory budgeting analysis, citizen request management, and project tracking for public sector organizations.
• Rudi Open source decentralized data sharing platform for territorial data management. Enables local producers to publish and share data while maintaining control, with federation across territories for open data initiatives.
• Decidim AI Community-developed AI moderation module for Decidim platforms that automatically detects and filters AI-generated spam and bot activity to protect the integrity of civic participation spaces.
• Voca Simplified Decidim distribution developed by Octree (Switzerland) that enables organizations to deploy a participation space in minutes via a single configuration form, with Open Source Politics providing implementation, training, and support services.
• Decidim_app Consolidated Decidim reference implementation combining core features co-developed with the Decidim community. Provides centralized maintenance, automated updates, and bug fixes applied simultaneously across all client platforms.
• LaSuite.coop Cooperative offering sovereign, ethical alternatives to major web platform office tools. Includes Grist (next-generation spreadsheet) and Docs (simplified collaborative text editor), with Open Source Politics as co-founder providing implementation services.

Quantifiable outcome

• 900 proposals collected in 2 months for Marseille's first participatory budget
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers15 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability7 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• Go Vocal (formerly CitizenLab)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 31 March 2026Go Vocal, a Belgian B Corp certified civic tech company founded in 2015 in Brussels with 48 employees and 26 nationalities, acquired Open Source Politics entirely. Open Source Politics becomes a Go Vocal entity. The acquisition was driven by OSP's need to maintain both its Decidim services and its growing contribution to LaSuite.coop, and Go Vocal's desire to expand its French and European client base. Go Vocal serves 600+ local authorities worldwide including Copenhagen, Oslo, Vienna, and 30+ French municipalities.
• Voca / OctreemajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 26 September 2025Voca is a distribution of Decidim developed by Swiss company Octree (ethical applications around digital commons). OSP is a partner of this initiative, co-financed the first development phase, and now offers Voca-based deployments as an ultra-fast, affordable Decidim option (€800 HT all-inclusive). OSP provides training and advisory support alongside Voca deployments. Joint clients include Martigues (France) and Gland (Switzerland).
• DembranemajorTechnology or Integration · 15 September 2025Dembrane is a Dutch company pioneering automated synthesis of oral discussions into structured documents without technical expertise. Their ECHO tool, combined with OSP's Decidim platforms, enables French organizations to automatically transform citizen discussions into actionable structured outputs. This partnership addresses the challenge of synthesizing large volumes of participatory inputs.
• Decidim AssociationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Decidim Association (Barcelona) is the non-profit governance body for the Decidim open-source project. OSP participates in the Metadecidim community, contributes code, and partners on EU-funded projects including MultiPoD. OSP is one of the most active contributors to the Decidim ecosystem.
• MultiPoD ConsortiummajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025MultiPoD is an EU-funded project (aligned with the Conference on the Future of Europe) creating a multilingual European public deliberation space by interconnecting existing communities and organizations. OSP hosts a custom Decidim platform with content suggestion and democracy data space features. First hybrid deliberation pilot held in Lisbon, November 2025.
• Nets4Dem / iDEM (EU Horizon projects)majorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023OSP participates as a technical partner in two EU Horizon-funded projects: Nets4Dem (network of democratic practitioners, 2023–2026) and iDEM (AI tools for multilingual democratic participation, pilots in Madrid, Bologna, Barcelona, Malta). OSP deploys Decidim, Grist, and Voca platforms within these projects.
• LaSuite.coopcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLaSuite.coop is a cooperative co-founded by Open Source Politics along with IndieHosters, Le Bureau coop, and Yaal. It offers a sovereign, ethical alternative to American office software giants, including Grist (next-generation spreadsheet), Docs (collaborative text editor), and more. LaSuite.coop will transform into a SCIC by integrating IndieHosters on July 1, 2026, and will open its membership to new partners. OSP contributes actively to its development as a second core activity.
• IndieHosterscoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerIndieHosters is OSP's hosting partner for Grist SaaS deployments in France. Grist instances are hosted on Scaleway servers in Île-de-France. IndieHosters is also the long-term partner being integrated into LaSuite.coop as a SCIC from July 1, 2026.
• CitipomajorGTM or Marketing PartnerCitipo provides modular website building, contact database management, newsletter sending, and campaign material preparation tools. Combined with Decidim and Qomon in an integrated offering for municipal 2026 campaigns in France.
• QomonmajorGTM or Marketing PartnerQomon provides a campaign command center with up-to-date demographic data, precise mapping, operation planning, and team communication tools for field mobilization. Combined with Decidim and Citipo in an integrated offering for municipal 2026 campaigns.
• IkoulaminorOthersIkoula is the web hosting provider for the Open Source Politics corporate website (opensourcepolitics.eu).

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Others

• Qomon: French campaign command-center platform for field mobilization, mapping, and outreach; bundled with Decidim and Citipo in OSP's integrated municipal campaign toolkit. Adjacent peer through GTM partnership.
• Citipo: Communication and campaign platform partnered with OSP for municipal 2026 electoral toolkits (combined with Decidim + Qomon). An adjacent ecosystem participant in OSP's integrated civic engagement offering.

Direct peers

• Bang the Table (EngagementHQ): Australia-headquartered civic engagement SaaS serving 400+ government clients across the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Closest commercial competitor offering hosted online consultation, surveys, and participatory budgeting to local councils.
• Consul (Madrid participation project): Open-source civic participation platform originally developed by the City of Madrid, used by hundreds of municipalities globally. Direct competitor to Decidim/OSP in the municipal participatory democracy niche with comparable use cases (budgets, proposals, voting).
• Go Vocal (formerly CitizenLab): Belgian B Corp civic participation SaaS company and OSP's acquirer. Directly comparable as it provides citizen engagement platforms to local governments and recently absorbed OSP into its product portfolio; OSP's founder Valentin Chaput has cited similarities in offering.
• Adhocracy+ (Liquid Democracy e.V.): German open-source participatory process platform for deliberation, proposals, and voting. Competes with Decidim in the European open-source civic tech ecosystem and is often cited alongside it as alternative infrastructure.
• LiquidFeedback / Liquid e.V. German open-source liquid democracy platform used by European political parties and associations. Directly comparable as an open-source alternative to Decidim with overlapping use cases in proposal writing and member-driven decision-making.

Emerging players

• Voca / Octree: Swiss developer of the Voca Decidim distribution enabling ultra-fast, single-form deployment of participatory platforms. Strategic OSP partner co-financing simplified deployments at €800 HT for smaller organizations; relevant as a deployment-layer peer.
• Dembrane: Dutch AI company pioneering automated synthesis of oral discussions into structured documents via its ECHO tool. Active OSP integration partner that combines with Decidim platforms; relevant comparable as civic-tech AI-application peer.
• Decidim Association: Barcelona-based non-profit governing the Decidim open-source platform that OSP commercializes. Directly upstream/downstream of OSP's offering; governance body for the technology stack OSP deploys and contributes 200+ improvements to.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/OpenSourcePolitics
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/open-source-politics
• Xx.com/opensourcepol
• Facebookfacebook.com/opensourcepolitics

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Open Source Politics