Livelii raises seed round

Canadian startup Livelii has raised $216,000 in a seed round through equity crowdfunding platform FrontFundr; reaching 28% of its goal with 81 days left.

Founded in 2019 and today a team of ~9, Livelii helps freelancers get access to benefits such as health and dental insurance, paid vacation, and sick days, by processing their invoices. It does that via an invoicing platform that can be set-up to fund a wellness account. In other words, Livelii gives freelancers a tool to create estimates and invoices, and once an invoice is sent to a client, it helps with collecting and processing the payment while setting aside a portion to go towards the different benefits. Life and health benefits are offered by Manulife.

When we first covered the startup, it featured two paid plans. Now, according to intel found on FrontFundr, Livelii plans to offer three tiers of service from Free, Plus to Premium. 

International expansion is on the horizon, although not in the immediate term and  Livelii views its US competitor as Catch; “To elaborate on our US competition, our closest competitor is Catch, which focuses its efforts on a marketplace across individual plans, as opposed to product innovation. Although similar, the mechanics to support the role we intend to play with our group benefits offering is drastically different, and of consideration, as we expand geographically and navigate systems and infrastructure that are inherently different than Canada’s.”

Finally, it has built a network of “highly engaged individuals of over 5,000” and has “over 2200 net new leads, composed of freelancers and independent workers” who have expressed interest in the product.

Bottom Line: The trouble with this model is around the time it will take the average freelancer to accumulate a meaningful wellness plan.