Smartmatic
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| Privately held | |
| Industry | Technology, Electronic voting |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom, multinational |
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Key people
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Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, Chairman |
| Revenue | $250 million (2014) |
| Website | www |
Smartmatic (also referred as Smartmatic Corp. or Smartmatic International) is a multinational company that specializes in technology solutions aimed at governments. It is organized around producing electronic voting systems, smart cities solutions (including public safety and public transportation), and identity management systems for civil registration, as well as authentication for government applications.
In 1997, three Venezuelans, Antonio Mugica, Alfredo José Angola and Roger Piñate founded Smartmatic in a "tiny office" in Caracas, Venezuela after meeting in a research lab. Using "the research and development department of Panagroup Corp." in Venezuela, the trio created a system where thousands of inputs could be placed into a network simultaneously. After the 2000 United States presidential election, the Venezuelans proposed to dedicate the system toward electoral functions.
After receiving funds "from private investors" which included Jorge Massa Dustou, one of the richest individuals in Venezuela, the company then began to expand rapidly, being officially incorporated on 11 April 2000 in Delaware and later establishing its headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida with only seven employees. In 2003, Smartmatic approached the Venezuelan government and formed the SBC organization that was owned 51% by Smartmatic, 47% Venezuelan state telecommunications organization CANTV and 2% by a Bolivarian Government of Venezuela affiliated company, Bizta. The Venezuelan government then invested in Bizta, the software company co-founded by then Smartmatic president Antonio Mugica that was losing money, granting Venezuela to own 28% of Smartmatic and placed a member of Venezuela's science ministry, Omar Montilla, on its board of directors. By the time Smartmatic made its first large deal with the Venezuelan government in 2004, the majority of employees worked in its Venezuela offices shared with Bizta, with 70 in Caracas while only 7 worked in Boca Raton, Florida and Sunnyvale, California.
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Wikipedia