U3 Capital

PROBLEM: Humanitarian organization have been unable fund IT project through donor fundraising, and therefore, have underfunded IT infrastructure projects. In addition, financial institutions have not financed Humanitarian IT projects (implementation + SaaS), because these projects are essentially unsecured debt. Humanitarian organizations must rely on a unsecured line of credit, which is the most expensive source of capital. These loans are high risk and low return. Non-profits must often make choices between funding long-term Humanitarian IT projects and keeping growing their programs and fulfilling their promise to donors.

SOLUTION: U3 Capital finances and manages qualified Humanitarian IT projects.

U3 Capital, L3C provides two services to its customers:

• Provides financing to the large-scale Humanitarian software purchases and deployments
• Provides software project & financial controls.

U3 Capital finances software and deployments costs, allowing non-profits to minimize risk and manage cash flow. For example, a $5M software project might require as much as $3M to be spent in the first year alone. This ties up valuable cash flow and puts the risk completely on the non-profit. U3 Capital can finance the project, providing an even $1M/year expense paid over 5 years. This “smoothing” of payments minimizes risk and helps non-profits manage operating expenses.

Humanitarian IT projects have been historically under delivered and been over budget.  In addition to financing SaaS and implementation fees, U3 Capital provides value to customers by managing the control of funds during a long-term software project. These funds are disbursed similar to a construction project. U3C provides controls and regularly checks on the status of ongoing software “construction” projects by employing experienced software project managers. U3 Capital’s expertise in managing the cost & control of large-scale software projects is a huge value add for its customers.

For more information, email: msmith@univicity.com