So while Matrix itself is an open source project backed by a non-profit foundation (https://matrix.org/foundation https://matrix.org/foundation), the team who s

So while Matrix itself is an open source project backed by a non-profit foundation (https://matrix.org/foundation https://matrix.org/foundation), the team who started Matrix created a startup (New Vector; https://vector.im https://vector.im) in 2017 in order to hire the core developers and ensure we could keep working on it fulltime (and also to dogfood the protocol and ensure that you can build apps on it that people consider useful enough to pay for). The Riot app (https://riot.im https://riot.im) is made by New Vector, and Modular (https://modular.im https://modular.im) is the hosting service New Vector provides as a paid Matrix hosting offering (using Riot as the default client). The proceeds from Modular go directly to paying the Matrix core devs employed by New Vector, and so massively benefit the project. Sorry it's a bit complicated; turns out that funding opensource is not trivial...