The company entered new Latin American markets with its electronic voting and assembly platforms.
During 2020, EVoting experienced a significant expansion of its operations, reaching most of the main Latin American economies: in addition to Chile, it held electronic voting and assemblies in Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Costa Rica and Guatemala.
These are the first results of the internationalization strategy, defined at the beginning of the year. “We originally thought that the process would be slower, and we bet that Mexico would be the first country in the region where we could enter. But surprisingly, we have had good acceptance in several markets,” says Mario Novoa, EVoting’s Commercial Manager.
So much so that today, the company has sales managers in Mexico, Perú, Costa Rica and Central America.
Different countries, different services
EVoting’s international expansion began in May of this year, with the assembly of members of the Costa Rican Firefighters’ Union, the first union in that country to use electronic voting, which in this new experience had a record participation.
In July, Perú opened up with a shareholders’ meeting through the EHolders platform for two of the main electricity generation companies in that country: Luz del Sur and Engie Energía Perú. Both shareholder meetings reached more than 95% quorum. José Manuel Dedios, Head of Corporate Affairs and Compliance at Luz del Sur, said that they opted for EVoting, mainly because of security and transparency issues. “It gave us almost the same peace of mind as if it were a face-to-face meeting: we had two moments in which the identity of the shareholders was validated, and only those who passed both validations satisfactorily had access to the videoconference,” he said.
In August, the Unitary Union of Workers of APM Terminals Callao in Perú made its debut by electing its Board of Directors with electronic voting. Pedro Atoche, coordinator of the election process, said that “everything went perfectly” and that the process was “clear and transparent”. By the end of October, the Association of Public Accountants of Junín, Perú, successfully held the election of its Board of Directors of the Functional Committees and representatives of the Satipo and Chanchamayo branches, with a turnout of 1,500 voters.
In November, for the first time in its history, the University of Costa Rica held elections of authorities electronically and remotely, with four processes where it had an average participation of 73%, higher than in previous years. The president of the University Electoral Tribunal, Virginia Borloz, said that the process “enhanced democracy and allowed to continue building the university” and publicly thanked EVoting for its work.
At the end of November, the national election of the Board of Directors of the Instituto Social del Periodista de Guatemala (Guatemalan Social Institute for Journalists) was successfully held, with the participation of more than one hundred members.
In the last quarter, the Association of Argentine Cooperatives, ACACOOP, held six assemblies in which more than 600 members participated. The operation involved the arrival of EVoting in Argentina.
At the end of the year, the Mexican Internet Association AIMX, which groups together the main technology brands operating in the country -Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Nike, Visa, Ebay, HP, Airbnb, Mercado Libre, Beat, among others- held its annual assembly and renewed its board of directors with the EAssemblies platform. Rafael Contreras, Director of Operations of AIMX, indicated that “it was a very good experience”. And he added: “in face-to-face assemblies we normally do not have such a high percentage of participation of those who have the right to vote. That undoubtedly contributes to this governance exercise and, of course, better positions us”.