History

Univicity was co-founded by Mark Smith, Steeve Kay and World Vision International. The relationship pre-dates the actual incorporation of the company by several years.

  • Sept 2006. Steeve Kay & I met through Halftime event sponsored by Brown & Streza and Concordia University. After many discussions, we both decided that we wanted to use Information Technology (IT) to help transform communities in the developing world. Steeve & I quickly met up with World Vision and the PEACE plan, looking for scalable ways we could serve humanity through information technology.
  • March 2007. We formed a non-profit called Kinnovation and applied for a 501c3 non-profit status through the IRS.
  • September 2008, Kinnovation announced a partnership between Kinnovation and World Vision International. Click here to watch a video of Bill Kliewer, World Vision, making the partnership announcement.
  • February 2009. We created Spark presentation in partnership World Vision. The Spark presentation is a Flash presentation of our vision of how software could make a dramatic impact on a non-profit, the donors, and the beneficiaries that they both desire to serve.
  • July 2009. We dissolved Kinnovation, because the IRS would not allows us to develop software as a non-profit.
  • July 2009. We incorporated Univicity as an L3C (low-profit limited liability company) in the state of Wyoming. Wyoming is one of several states that supports the new L3C entity type.  The name Univicity was inspired by the concept of a  ”UNIversal VIsion for a VIllage and CITY.”  The basic idea of using standardized software & services to aid in sustainable community development.
  • September 2009. We hold our first Univicity Leadership Forum. We discuss the potential of reselling Blackbaud fundraising software while we create our own Spark & Bonfire systems.
  • March 2010. We held our first Bonfire consortium. We brought together 3 leading mega-churches that were engaged in community transformation around the globe and needed software to mobilize their members.
  • May 2010. Mark Smith took his first trip to Haiti to see how Univicity could help with the reconstruction efforts. Univicity was hired to work on strategy to help obtain birth certificates for 1 million Haitian children that do not have birth certificates.
  • July 2010.  Univicity begins working with Digicel and World Vision on the Haiti Mobile Money Initiative, a mobile money contest funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
  • Jan 2011 –  Univicity spins off Project Bonfire as a separate company. Univicity adopts a new VC-like focus. Instead of creating software and services ourselves, Univicity will invest in other start-up ventures that will deliver on the vision. Many of these startups may be located in developing countries like Haiti.