Martus is being developed by Benetech, whose mission is to bring the immense power of technology to bear on social problems such as human rights, literacy, education and disability access.

Structured as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Benetech blends the creativity of social entrepreneurship, the disciplined analysis of venture capital and the rigorous management of a technology startup. We build technology tools for disadvantaged groups and the nonprofit sector.

By providing seed capital for market and technical feasibility studies and infrastructure to support project planning and implementation, Benetech translates nonprofit concepts into reality. We couple the vision of social entrepreneurs with a mechanism that brings their inspiration to fruition — and to market. Our projects operate as divisions under the Benetech organizational umbrella, providing significant economies of scale.

While Benetech specifically pursues endeavors that emphasize a strong social return on investment, each project is evaluated, planned and implemented with a high tech managerial approach that includes the development of a strategic business plan, complete with detailed budgets and quantifiable benchmarks.

Benetech seeks to cooperate, rather than compete, with established service providers, other nonprofits and individuals by supplying them with the technology tools they need to achieve their goals. As a result of this collaboration, our projects benefit from the invaluable input of advocates, advisors and experts in the technology, education, disability and human rights communities. Our tools are developed in collaboration with our clients to serve our clients — not run their lives.

Our senior management team has extensive experience with innovative organizations and technologies from the for-profit, nonprofit and social entrepreneurship sectors. Our engineering staff is committed to working collaboratively to bring critically important technology to social applications, with features tailored to our clients' skills and specialized needs.

Building on a successful ten-year track record providing innovative products in the disability field, Benetech has now laid the foundation for expansion into other targeted social and technological endeavors. Our predecessor organization, Arkenstone, was founded in 1989 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to provide reading tools for people with disabilities. For over a decade, Arkenstone delivered these tools to over 40,000 individuals in 60 countries in a dozen languages. Rather than increasing dependency by handing out technology to its users, Arkenstone provided its customers with affordable tools to help people help themselves. During this time, product revenues covered more than 99 percent of Arkenstone's operating budget. The sale of the Arkenstone business operations in 2000 to a for-profit company provided the $3 million in initial capital to launch Benetech.