Loomio began in 2011, when activists from Occupy Wall Street and social entrepreneurs from the Enspiral network realised they needed to solve the same problem: fast, inclusive, effective decision-making without meetings. In 2012, we formed our cooperative and released a prototype (Loomio Beta). We found that many others around the world needed the same solution.
In 2013, we ran a successful international crowdfunding campaign, enabling us to work on a new version of the software, Loomio 1.0, which was released the following year. In 2015, we raised a round of ethical capital, and are working to bring collaborative decision-making to millions more people around the world.
You can see a detailed timeline of our history between 2011 and 2015 here: http://www.loomio.org/timeline
(we hope to update it with the more recent stuff soon)
If you prefer video, here's a beautiful story from Ben Knight (33min), one of our cofounders. Or check this 3-minute version from Rich.