Has some interesting figures, but so it begins: reading between the lines they are evidently running out of VC funding and corporate funding is also not going well. So likely their current funders will try to sell off Element to someone else while it still looks good and then the user squeeze will start shortly after.
I mean, isn’t it a good thing that the VC and corporate funding is running out and more users would understand the importance of funding it? Just wish they let liberapay donators to vote also, as I despise patreon.
Also how would selling off element work?
The problem is that their current costs can not be paid for by user contributions (by a long shot) and the VC funders will also want to make their investments back somehow.
AFAIK Element is owned by a for-profit company called New Vector that can be sold as any other company. But they changed names and ownership/funding a lot in over the years and merged with some dodgy crypto-currency firm, so I might be wrong on the specific names and ownership structure.