Software engineering firm INVID’s 3-yr. growth centers on local, nearshore services
Puerto Rican software engineering firm INVID, founded in 2003, has upheld its growth curve for the past three years with services offered to local and nearshore companies — in the US mainland — in need of custom software to solve business challenges.
Alberto Lugo, president of INVID, said while 2020 was a “very challenging year, we manage to continue providing our services, locally and nearshore, despite the pandemic and continue to grow, creating new jobs and retaining local talent.”
The company’s portfolio of services includes strategic consulting on technology, software design, development, and full lifecycle management of custom applications, according to its website. It works with healthcare, government public services, financial services, communications, and education.
“Basically, what we do is simplify processes and automate the workflow,” said Lugo.
INVID works in conjunction with federal contractors, companies that do e-commerce and companies dedicated to education in Puerto Rico and the United States.
“It’s a fairly wide range of different industries, but they all look for something in common and that is labor, made in the United States and at affordable prices,” Lugo said.
“We do it through technology or computer programs. We go to a client, we see a process, we help simplify it, we develop a product or software to help automate it, and then we measure the results,” Lugo said.
“We also do app modernization, which means that we take existing apps and put them at the forefront of what is on the web and mobile devices,” Lugo explained.
“What we’re growing most in that region [United States] is outsourcing services to third parties. This means that these companies in the US mainland are offered services from Puerto Rico,” Lugo added.
To offer its services outside Puerto Rico, INVID is taking advantage of benefits offered by the government, through Act 20, which seeks to promote the export of services, Lugo said.
And as a result of its export strategic, INVID has been able to add jobs.
“The company has about 55 employees and we’ve opened 10 to 15 job positions. Most of them are in programming,” Lugo said.
As for how the company has fared during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lugo said the team “has remained resilient.”
“I think the pandemic affected me and the team more psychologically. The change we had overnight, being locked up and working remotely was very radical,” Lugo said.
However, he said in terms of business, the technology and information industry has been one of the “big winners in this pandemic.”
Over the past three years, he said INVID has grown exponentially — by 216% — nabbing a spot in this year’s Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 5000 list, which ranks the fastest-growing private companies in the United States.
This is the second consecutive year in which INVID has been ranked in the listing. In 2020, INVID received a 4,599 ranking, this year it moved up to the 2,045th slot.
“Our plans are to continue to see if we grow on that list. We’re not necessarily going to get in every year, but we still want to continue growing in the export strategy,” Lugo said. “Receiving a ranking of 2,045 among 5000 private companies evidences the effort and hard work that we have been doing for the past years.”
Reporter María Victoria Arenas contributed to this story.
