Internet of Things (IoT) company Clixlogic Inc. is the first company to be signed under fintech company First Circle’s exclusive Growth Partners Program. The new partnership was celebrated last Wednesday, September 14, 2022 at Manila House Private Club.
The Growth Partners Program provides free financing to high-potential small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) – equivalent to 10% of the SME’s annual sales – in exchange for a 25% passive stake in the business. This financing is the first of its kind in the world, and a unique way of fulfilling the ambitions of SMEs that want to achieve hypergrowth. Clixlogic, which started as a UPS service center and developed into one of the biggest ICT companies in the country, will be receiving ₱15 million with zero interest – with added access to First Circle’s other SME growth tools such as B2B payments, corporate cards, and FX and cross-border remittances.
Clixlogic’s initial connection with First Circle came from applying for First Circle’s Revolving Credit Line in 2020. The credit line helped Clixlogic throughout the pandemic; from 2019, Clixlogic doubled its sales in 2022 and even landed in the 20th place of Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Growth Champions 2022 list. Thus, when the Growth Partners Program launched in April 2022, Clixlogic was the first high-potential client First Circle approached.
“We were very effective in growing businesses, but what we were missing is a type of product that can take the most competitive, highest-potential, greatest prospective SMEs and not only turn them into large businesses, but listed companies and conglomerates in their own right,” explains First Circle CEO Patrick Lynch. “The Growth Partners Program, which is very careful in selecting its partners, will help companies grow to levels which would otherwise be simply outside of their imagination or simply impossible because of the lack of resources available.”
Fernando has high hopes for the new partnership, as First Circle’s increased support will solve a lot of the company’s growing pains. As Clixlogic signed multimillion-peso clients like Accenture and Concentrix, the company moved from being cash flow-positive to having tight cash flows. Funding will also improve Clixlogic’s production lead times, nab more government permits, mitigate shipment delays and forex volatility. More importantly, it can help Clixlogic go public and get listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange – a previous pipe dream that Fernando believes can now be achieved in five years’ time.
Fernando is now manning the company “with the end in mind”: to make the Philippines the IoT capital of the world. “We used to be the texting capital of the world, and now we are the social media capital of the world,” he said at the signing ceremony. “It doesn’t have to start and end with me, but I want to tell everybody how easy it is to start the Internet of Things. IoT is ubiquitous, everyone will keep using it, it is revolutionary.”
Also in attendance at the signing ceremony was Director of Trade and Investment Director at the British Embassy the Philippines, Lindsey Gilbert-Crouch, who lauded the country’s growing fintech opportunities and financial inclusion for SMEs. “A lot of the growth enjoyed by fintech companies in the UK is brought by excellent support systems and ecosystems in place in the UK,” she said in her keynote address. “This includes organizations offering similar services brought by First Circle: access to the right financing solutions at the right time, and connections that allow fintech companies to grow.”
Source: First Circle
