Procurify — a purchasing and accounts payable (AP) startup — has secured USD $20 million in growth capital from CIBC Innovation Banking.

The platform streamlines purchasing and expense management on both desktop and mobile. Users can create and oversee orders, submit and approve requests, generate reports on daily operations, and more. Notably, its new AP module leverages AI to automate invoice processing. It can instantly scan invoices to extract data, identify inaccuracies, and pre-populate draft bills — speeding up a workflow that, according to the company, can otherwise take up to an hour per invoice. Payments can also be made through ACH, wire transfers, and checks in the U.S., as well as electronic funds transfers in Canada.

Procurify plans to use the new funding to advance its procurement technologies. Focus areas include simplifying more processes and enhancing data analytics. One potential application is analyzing spend codes — tags assigned to product requests or orders — to help customers make better spending decisions across departments.

“There are organizations that are on a mission, are limited by resources, and can only manage one or two solutions in their back office,” Aman Mann, the CEO of Procurify, told the Vancouver Tech Journal. “So I'm really proud that we're bringing simplicity and ease of use with AI capacity and automation to these customers. And we're actually living through our vision — which is building the most complete solution for them.”

The company caters to SMBs and mid-market companies and is used by the likes of Asana, Hootsuite, and Questrade. Its last fundraising round — Series C — brought in USD $50 million from a pool of investors like Ten Coves Capital and Export Development Canada. Earlier investors include Boris Wertz (general partner at Version One Ventures), Ryan Holmes (founder of Hootsuite), and U.S. billionaire Mark Cuban. 

Procurify was founded in 2011 by Mann and fellow BCIT graduates Eugene Dong and Kenneth Loi. At the time, there was a lack of procurement solutions for SMBs. Major players in the market like SAP and Coupa targeted enterprises with legacy systems — which could cost anywhere from thousands to millions of dollars. So, the trio set out to create an easy-to-use cloud alternative that offers the same benefits, at one-tenth of the price.

“Money has one of the greatest impacts inside an organization,” said Mann. “When handled correctly, we saw amazing missions of organizations being successful. But when things went bad, we saw people lose their jobs, companies shut down, or organizations not be able to fulfill their missions [...] So it was clear to us that this was bigger than just the idea of purchasing [...] We wanted every dollar to count for the organizations that we work with.”

The company’s commitment to its customers was personal to Mann, he said. Growing up, the son of Indian immigrants watched his father launch businesses that didn’t last. It left him with a deeper understanding of the hardships that come when a company closes its doors.

“I definitely know what money means when you don’t have it versus when you do,” the executive shared. “Personal life experience gave me compassion and [a desire] to help.”

Fast forward to today: Procurify has moved operations from a basement to an office in Richmond and, now, to Vancouver. Among the lessons learned from the journey that shaped its success is the importance of aligning people, processes, and systems. The company has maintained this philosophy as it grew by focusing on simplicity and ease of use over capabilities that lack strong use cases.

“Some companies think, 'Oh I’ll just build more stuff,’” said Mann. “But then that’s what defeats the intent where people get real value when they start using your [solution]. If someone starts to hate using the product, they’ll go around the product.”

Reflecting on the growth of Procurify and other local companies, Mann noted that Vancouver’s “roots are becoming really strong.”

“Now we're getting to the next stage in generations of people who have been through a few startups and are getting more motivated to build on their own and require fewer resources due to AI and other components,” he said. “So I think there are exits that are happening throughout Canada that are […] spinning out individuals who have the capital and courage to go create their own companies to solve more problems. I'm starting to see more of that happening.”

For anyone looking to be part of the cycle, Mann encourages intimately understanding the people you’re helping and the challenges being tackled. 

“Be very clear about who you want to solve the problem for from the beginning,” he highlighted. “Because your initial customer base will really define the type of problem that you solve at scale. So your initial customer base really does matter. I would say really talk to them. Put yourself in their shoes […] and you will innovate and build a great company.”

The entrepreneur added: “Just focus on helping other people. I've only ever seen that return a hundredfold for anybody.”

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