Collaboration over competition
With this deal, Go Vocal is consolidating its position as Europe’s leading player in digital democracy — a sector that is gaining increasing strategic importance as governments seek secure and robust infrastructure to engage citizens in decision-making.
The combined organization serves over 750 governments in more than 20 countries — from Ghent and Utrecht to Copenhagen, Vienna, and now also Bordeaux and Nice — and has already reached nearly 10 million citizens.
“Instead of each building the same thing separately, we decided to do it together — to move faster, further, and to serve governments better,” explains Wietse Van Ransbeeck, CEO and Co-Founder of Go Vocal.
Laying the foundation for European democratic infrastructure
Across the continent, governments have invested in digital participation — but largely in isolation. The civic tech landscape has matured, but unevenly. Most players have either built deep roots in a single market or spread internationally without ever achieving the depth that public institutions truly need.
At a time when democratic institutions are being tested across the world, the infrastructure governments use to engage citizens cannot afford to stay fragmented.
Go Vocal and Open Source Politics are among the few to have done both successfully — and by joining forces, are creating something Europe does not have yet: a platform with the local expertise, the international reach, and the scale to innovate and move as fast as the moment demands.
“Europe needs a robust, independent player in digital democracy and civic tech — and we’re building it. By bringing Open Source Politics into Go Vocal, we’re not just strengthening our presence in France. We’re also accelerating the development of a shared European infrastructure for democratic participation.” — Wietse Van Ransbeeck, CEO and Co-Founder, Go Vocal
The right partner, chosen deliberately
In recent years, OSP found itself at a strategic crossroads: the open-source platform it was implementing was falling behind client needs, requiring significant investments to catch up — investments OSP could not make alone while simultaneously building out LaSuite.coop, its European open-source software initiative.
Rather than spread resources thin and compromise on either mission, OSP's founders made a clear-eyed decision: find the best possible partner for their participation clients. That partner was Go Vocal.
“For ten years, OSP has been a pioneer of digital democracy in France and Europe. By joining Go Vocal, we’re giving our clients access to an internationally recognized, powerful platform and company — and giving democratic ambition the scale it deserves.”
— Valentin Chaput, Managing Director and Co-Founder of OSP
“When the people who have spent ten years building digital democracy in France choose you as their partner, it means something. It's a sign of peer recognition – people who know the field inside out – and it makes us more determined than ever to live up to it."
— Wietse Van Ransbeeck, CEO and Co-Founder of Go Vocal
Major French cities get welcomed to the Go Vocal community
The acquisition also means that a number of large and dynamic French cities, such as Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Nice or Bordeaux, will get access to the Go Vocal community. It opens the door to a broader network of best practices, shared innovation, and a platform that continuously evolves with the needs of modern city governments.
For Go Vocal, this represents a significant strengthening of its presence in the French market, the largest public sector market in the European Union.
Infrastructure that works for governments
For infrastructure to work, it has to work at scale — across geographies, languages, governance models, and demographic groups. The Go Vocal platform is built to meet that standard.
Governments can run end-to-end participation processes that bridge online and offline engagement. For the civil servants running these processes, back-office tools allow cross-team collaboration, outcome tracking, and structured reporting.
AI-powered analysis automatically synthesises thousands of citizen contributions into clear, actionable insights, making it possible to run large-scale democratic processes without the analytical burden that has historically made them unsustainable.
The platform has been independently recognized by People Powered, the international network of participation practitioners, as the most complete digital participation solution available globally.
Built for this moment – and beyond
At a moment when democratic institutions are being tested across the world, the question of whether citizens can meaningfully participate in public life is not an abstract one. Go Vocal and Open Source Politics are betting it can be answered — at scale, in Europe, now.
“We're excited to continue to build the best civic tech solutions in Europe — together as Go Vocal.” — Valentin Chaput, Managing Director and Co-Founder of OSP
About Go Vocal
Go Vocal (formerly CitizenLab) is a Brussels-based civic technology company founded in 2015. Its platform helps governments at every level engage citizens meaningfully in public decision-making. The company is active in over 20 countries and works with more than 600 governments, including Ghent, Utrecht, Düsseldorf, Copenhagen, and Vienna. Go Vocal is a certified B Corp with 48 employees of 26 nationalities. www.govocal.com
About Open Source Politics (OSP)
Open Source Politics (OSP) is a French company founded in 2016 to support digital citizen participation for public organizations. Over the past ten years, OSP has supported more than 200 clients, including the European Commission, the French Parliament, and the City of New York.
