'Inconsistencies' with an app that was supposed to track the results of the Democrat caucuses in Iowa threw the vote into chaos overnight - with zero per cent of precincts reporting early Tuesday.

The app was created by Shadow, Inc., a technology firm that was created in January last year after data and messaging service Groundbase was acquired by Democrat non-profit ACRONYM.

Finance records show the Iowa Democratic Party paid $60,000 to Shadow, Inc. for website development at the back end of last year which was spent on the app, according to Huffington Post.

Shadow's CEO Gerard Niemira, product manager Ahna Rao and COO James Hickey all worked on the Hillary for America campaign which was defeated by Donald Trump in 2016.

Shadow Inc, a technology firm created last year, was responsible for building the app that turned the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus into chaos on Monday night

The company's CEO Gerard Niemira (left), product manager Ahna Rao (center) and COO James Hickey (right) all worked on the Hillary for America campaign

Other staff include alumni of Obama's presidential campaign, as well as Google, Apple and former DNC staffers.

The company describes itself as 'building political power for the progressive movement by developing affordable and easy-to-use tools' for campaign teams and political organisations.

The firm's website advertises two services - the Lightrail data management tool, which allows the easy transfer of voter data from one platform to another, and peer-to-peer email services for speaking with likely voters.

The Nevada Democratic Party, which is scheduled to hold its own caucus on February 22, also paid Shadow, Inc for 'website development'.

The app was supposed to make it easier and faster for caucus secretaries to upload results and to capture more data.

But numerous Democrats reported problems downloading the app and uploading results, forcing them to call headquarters and report the data manually.

Shawn Sebastian, a secretary for Story County Precinct, said he spent three hours on hold before he was able to report his results, a process which took 20 minutes - explaining the long delay.

Others said they were told to take pictures of the results from each precinct, which could then be delivered to headquarters by hand.

Dailymail.com contacted Shadow, Inc for comment but had not heard back at the time of publication.

A spokesman for ACRONYM said: 'ACRONYM is a nonprofit organization and not a technology company. As such we have not provided any technology to the Iowa Democratic Party, the Presidential campaigns or the Democrat National Committee.

'ACRONYM is an investor in several for-profit companies across the progressive media and techology sectors. One of those independent, for-profit companies is Shadow, Inc, which also has other private investors.

'We are reading confirmed reports of Shadow's work with the Iowa Democratic Party on Twitter and we, like everyone else, are eagerly awaiting more information from the Iowa Democratic Party about what happened.'

Problems with a mobile app appeared to force a delay in reporting the results of the Iowa caucuses Monday, as the campaigns, voters and the media pressed party officials for an explanation and got few answers

Wait it out: Joe Biden's supporters wait to find out what is happening as the Democratic results are plunged into chaos

The slowdown came as the party attempted to report more data about the caucus than in years past - promising to release both a headcount of each candidates' supporters and the delegate winners from each site.

The technology aimed to produce a more efficient and reliable way of calculating and releasing results to the public than the complicated math and thousands of phone calls that the caucus system has long relied upon.

The use of the app had concerned some observers who feared that unofficial results could be inaccurate if hackers or other problems taint the data.

'The integrity of the results is paramount,' Iowa Democratic Party spokeswoman Mandy McClure said in a statement.

'We have experienced a delay in the results due to quality checks and the fact that the IDP is reporting out three data sets for the first time.

'What we know right now is that around 25% of precincts have reported, and early data indicates turnout is on pace for 2016.'

Democrat officials denied that there had been any kind of hack or 'intrusion' into the system, and said the delay was the result of 'quality checking' the data after inconsistencies were reported.

The problems were an embarrassment for a state party that has long sought to protect its prized status as the first contest in the primary race.

The delay was certain to become fodder for caucus critics who call the process antiquated and exclusionary.

President Donald Trump's campaign quickly seized on the issue to sow doubt about the validity of the results.

Please someone tell me what is going on? A Joe Biden supporter tries to find out the cause of the unprecedented delay

'Quality control = rigged?' Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale tweeted Monday evening, adding a emoji with furrowed brows.

Linn County Auditor Joel Miller, who ran a precinct in the Cedar Rapids suburb of Robins, said some app users may not have gotten the instructions on how to log into the system.

'If people didn't know where to look for the PIN numbers or the precinct numbers, that could slow them down,' said Miller, who said he had no problem using the system to report his precinct's figures and it worked fine.

Helen Grunewald, a precinct caucus chairwoman in Benton County, said she had been on hold with the party trying to report her results for a significant amount of time.

Earlier in the night, however, Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price said while there were some reports from precinct officials that they couldn't log into the mobile app, a team of trouble-shooters was working to address any technical issues.

'We've had an app before but we've also had a hotline before, and folks have had the option to do that, and so we expect that we´ll be able to report the results in a timely manner this evening,' he said.