Cooperative SaaS and AI agents: why the SCOP status matters more than ever

TL;DR

With the rise of AI agents, choosing a SaaS vendor means choosing who you trust with your data and which project you fund. Kantree, published by Digicoop, is a SCOP (worker cooperative): owned by its employees, with no outside investors to satisfy, no plan to be resold, and a “1 partner = 1 vote” principle. This model anchors the company in a lasting human project, where decisions about AI are made by the people who build the product, in the service of its users. Find out what this concretely changes for your data and for your project management tool.

Table of contents

• AI agents and SaaS: what changes for your data
• What is a SCOP? The Kantree model
• No investors to satisfy: a company built to last
• No resale in sight
• A human project, not a replacement project
• Co-building with users
• Investor-backed SaaS vs cooperative SaaS: the comparison
• 6 questions to ask any SaaS vendor
• FAQ: frequently asked questions
• Conclusion

AI agents are showing up in every work tool. They write, sort, decide and, more and more, act in place of teams. For a company choosing a SaaS tool, the question is no longer just “which features?” but “what kind of company is behind the vendor?”.

This is where the cooperative status takes on its full meaning. At Kantree, it is not just another marketing argument: the SCOP is the founding choice of Digicoop, the company that has published Kantree since 2015. Here is why it is even more relevant today.

AI agents and SaaS: what changes for your data

Your project data is a strategic asset

In a project management tool, you store your processes, your decisions, your discussions and sometimes your trade secrets. It is the memory of your organization.

In the age of AI agents, this memory becomes a highly coveted raw material. It can be used to automate and analyze, but also to train models or to build products that are not yours.

The vendor’s business model determines how your data is used

A vendor funded by venture capital has to deliver fast growth and a profitable exit for its investors. In this context, replacing human work with autonomous agents is a very natural margin promise.

This does not mean that all vendors act this way. It means that a company’s structure shapes its choices, and that these choices directly affect your data and your teams.

What is a SCOP? The Kantree model

A SCOP (Cooperative and Participative Society) is based on a few simple principles, which Kantree has applied since the beginning:

• Capital held by those who work: employees are the majority shareholders of the company.
• Democratic governance: each partner has one vote, regardless of the number of shares held.
• Fair profit sharing: distribution rewards each person’s involvement rather than invested capital.
• Financial strength: part of the profits is mandatorily set aside in reserves to guarantee the company’s longevity.
• Partnership open to all: every employee can become a partner, as illustrated by the arrival of new partners described in this article.

Digicoop was founded in 2015 by former colleagues who share the same values: collaboration, autonomy, transparency. Kantree is the product translation of those values.

No investors to satisfy: a company built to last

Digicoop made the deliberate choice to go without venture capital. The road to funding was longer, but it made it possible to build a company whose goal is to last, not to grow at all costs.

Concretely, this changes three things:

• No pressure for artificial growth: no obligation to multiply the valuation within a few years.
• No trade-off between customers and shareholders: product decisions are made for users, not for a fund.
• Long-term horizon: technical and ethical choices are judged over ten years, not by the next funding round.

In a market where AI pushes some players to promise productivity gains through job cuts, this long-term horizon is a protection for you, the customer.

No resale in sight

Many SaaS companies are built to be acquired. When the vendor is bought, priorities, terms of use and sometimes the use of data can change overnight.

In a SCOP, the capital belongs to those who work in the company, and the reserves built up stay in the company. Resale is not the goal of the project. Your project management tool is not an asset waiting for a buyer.

This is a point that IT and procurement teams should examine: the stability of a vendor’s governance is part of supplier risk, just like its security. It is also a strong argument for companies looking to replace an on-premise tool at end of support with a solution that will still be around, with the same philosophy, ten years from now.

A human project, not a replacement project

The cooperative was born from a simple idea: a company is made of people, and each of them should have a say in its future. Kantree’s values follow directly from it: autonomous teams, transparency, and users’ control over their processes.

Facing AI agents, this philosophy answers a question that companies increasingly ask themselves: what is the tool I am buying for? To make my teams more efficient and more autonomous, or to prepare their replacement?

A cooperative can perfectly well integrate artificial intelligence. The difference lies in governance: it is the people who work in the company, not investors, who decide whether, how and for whom AI is used. When the decision-makers are also the people whose jobs are at stake, the temptation to “make humans disappear” simply has no economic driver.

Co-building with users

A company with no outside shareholders has only one customer to satisfy: you. This setup favors co-building:

• User feedback feeds directly into the roadmap.
• Product, support and sales teams work together, without the silos inherited from an investment logic.
• The specific use cases of each organization are listened to, then built into the product when they have broader value.

This logic is reflected in the product: workspaces open to all by default, transparency of information, and processes that teams configure themselves. To see this principle at work, you can explore the company overview template or the OKR template, two ready-to-use templates for running an organization transparently.

Investor-backed SaaS vs cooperative SaaS: the comparison

This table describes structural trends, not certainties: each vendor still has to be assessed individually.

6 questions to ask any SaaS vendor

Whether you choose Kantree or another tool, these questions have become essential:

1. Who owns the capital of the vendor and who makes strategic decisions?
2. Can my data be used to train AI models, theirs or third parties’?
3. Where is my data hosted, and where are my file attachments hosted?
4. Which certifications (ISO 27001, GDPR compliance) are really in place?
5. What happens if the vendor is acquired?
6. Can I easily export my data if I leave?

On Kantree’s side: the database is hosted in France, attachments are currently hosted in Europe, and Kantree is ISO 27001 certified. For compliance and sovereignty needs, Kantree provides a native GDPR framework suited to European companies.

FAQ: Frequently asked questions

What is a SCOP? A SCOP is a cooperative and participative society, in which employees are the majority partners. Decisions are made on the “1 partner = 1 vote” principle and profits are shared fairly, with part set aside in reserves to guarantee the company’s longevity.

Why is the cooperative status relevant in the age of AI agents? Because the ownership structure determines how the company uses AI and your data. In a SCOP, there is no investor expecting a quick return; it is the people who work in the company who decide the direction of the product.

Can a cooperative use artificial intelligence? Yes. The status does not forbid AI. It ensures that decisions about it are made collectively by the people who build the product, with the goal of serving users.

What happens if Kantree is acquired? Digicoop is majority-owned by its employees and its reserves stay in the company: resale is not the goal of the model. Every strategic decision is made collectively, without pressure from outside shareholders.

Where is my data hosted with Kantree? The database is hosted in France. Attachments are currently hosted in Europe, in Ireland. Kantree is ISO 27001 certified.

Conclusion

As AI agents reshuffle the cards of work, choosing a SaaS vendor is also a choice of society. Kantree’s SCOP status offers a concrete answer: a company owned by its employees, with no investors to satisfy, no resale in sight, built to last and to co-build its product with its users.

To check for yourself, nothing beats a trial: import a project, invite your team and judge the tool on its merits.