Licify, a Colombian company offering construction procurement and related digital financial services, recently secured an investment package totaling USD 3.4 million. The group of investors includes Mexico’s G2 Momentum Capital and several US-based investors: the nonprofit Accion Venture Lab, Brick & Mortar Ventures, Dash Fund and a fund affiliated with Columbia University. Licify plans to use the fresh cash to facilitate its expansion into Mexico.
Amee Parbhoo, Managing Partner at Accion Venture Lab, said, “As fintech [financial technology] investors, we have seen how hard it is to underwrite micro- and small businesses in the construction industry given both their complex cashflow cycles and lack of digitization. Licify leverages its verticalized software to unlock financing and faster payments for thousands of subcontractors.”
Licify is based in the city of Bogotá and was founded in 2017. Its Vende+ product provides construction companies with a platform to find and publish calls for bids, obtain financing, track financial performance and collect payment. The firm has 17,000 clients for which it reportedly has “facilitate[d] over USD 2 billion in business… in the last two years.”
Founded in 1961, Accion is a nonprofit that seeks to alleviate poverty by offering services such as microenterprise loans and business training. In 2022, it reported total assets of USD 470 million. Accion created Accion Venture Lab in 2011 to serve as its “seed-stage investment arm.” The mission of this investment vehicle is to support “technology and [other] new approaches that help underserved people and small businesses benefit from the world’s formal economy.”
Brick & Mortar invests in the “architecture, engineering, construction, and facilities management” sectors with a focus on technology. It is based in the city of San Francisco, California, and was founded in 2015.
By James Stevenson, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
Accion press release
https://www.accion.org/licify-announces-3-4m-seed-round-led-by-brick-mortar-ventures-and-accion-venture-lab-to-revolutionize-construction-procurement-and-financial-services
Licify homepage
https://licify.co/
Brick & Mortar Ventures homepage
https://brickmortar.vc/
Accion homepage
https://www.accion.org/
Accion 2022 financial report
https://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/2022-ACCION-International-and-Sub-FS.pdf
Previous MicroCapital article on Accion
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-accion-sturgeon-lead-6-4m-equity-round-for-trukkr-fintech-serving-trucking-smes-in-pakistan/
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