In today’s challenging economic environment, businesses of all sizes struggle to identify and claim valuable tax credits and incentives, with an estimated $1.2 trillion remaining untapped annually due to complex regulations, opaque processes, and inefficient discovery methods. Traditional approaches to credits and incentives (C&I) plague companies with friction, manual searches, and missed opportunities, particularly organizations without dedicated resources. Incentify transforms this reality with an AI-powered platform built from the ground up to streamline and scale C&I discovery and execution. Through their flagship product Incentify Explore, users upload a single address—or their full corporate portfolio—and instantly access tailored incentives mapped down to the street level, with AI-driven precision that notifies users of real-time legislative updates. The company’s technology has already attracted major enterprises like Amazon, Kroger, Cargill, Tyson, Sony Pictures, and thousands of small and medium-sized businesses looking to unlock financial benefits in an underserved market.
LA TechWatch sat down with Incentify CEO and Founder Laurence Sotsky to learn more about the business, its future plans, and recent $9.5M Series A round.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
The Series A funding round was for $9.5M and was led by Innovent Capital Group, with participation from Ryan LLC, Gary Gilbert (cofounder of Rocket Mortgage and co-owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers) and others.
Tell us about your product or service.
Incentify is the leading AI-powered platform for discovering and managing tax credits and incentives (C&I). Traditionally, the C&I landscape has been plagued by friction, opacity, and underutilization—leaving up to $1.2T in available incentives untapped by corporations. Incentify is transforming this reality with a platform built from the ground up to streamline and scale C&I discovery and execution. With Incentify Explore, users can upload a single address—or their full corporate portfolio—and instantly surface tailored incentives by eligibility, strategic use case (e.g., carryforward periods, recapture clauses), or keyword. The AI-driven system delivers unmatched precision by mapping incentives down to the street level and notifying users of real-time legislative updates.
What inspired the start of Incentify?
The company was originally founded to manage transferable tax credits, largely in the film industry. Once we got into working with some of the bigger studios, an even bigger problem availed itself…how do you find and manage government incentives? Incentify was born.
How is it different?
Incentify is the only company supporting businesses of all sizes to access the 1.2T market of untapped credits and incentives. In a tough economic environment, the opportunity for companies ranging from small businesses to large corporations to secure significant cost savings is substantial, and the platform makes a normally difficult process much more streamlined, especially for organizations that do not have the capital to support a team of advisors and accountants.
What market you are targeting and how big is it?
Incentify works with companies from the Fortune 500 all the way down to small businesses
What’s your business model?
We have three important components to our business model.
First we are a SaaS company, charging monthly fees for specific functionality.
Next we charge for “credits” of searches on our system.
Finally, if we help a customer connect with one of our advisor partners, we charge a “success fee” based on the economic benefit realized by our customer. This fee is shared with our advisor partners in predetermined ways.
How are you preparing for a potential economic slowdown?
Not to sound like a contrarian, but in some ways our business is aided by a more difficult economy where customers are focused on savings. C&I is a massive asset class, one where businesses of all sizes can benefit. When the economy is more challenging, business owners and operators look for innovative ways to save…Incentify helps here.
What was the funding process like?
The funding process was exciting. As a CEO there’s nothing more fun than pitching your company to the smartest people in the room. We were very lucky to meet the investors we met as well as derive continued support from existing investors. We have some very very big partnerships we are going to announce soon, so our new investors understood our desire to lean into these partnerships.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
I think our biggest challenge is actually our biggest asset..our business model. Most venture investors only understand straight SaaS revenue. It takes a very sophisticated investor to see the beauty in a diversified revenue model, one which has strong SaaS revenue augmented and supported with credits and success fees.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
I believe our innovative model, along with our product’s ability to transform a massive antiquated industry combined with very large partners that are just coming on line, gave our new investors confidence in the company and a strong belief that a large Return on their Investment is imminent.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
The funding will fuel continued advancement of Incentify’s AI infrastructure, international and domestic data acquisition, strategic partnership execution, and an expanded go-to-market motion, including targeted sales and marketing efforts. The company plans to double its workforce in 2025 to meet growing demand.
What advice can you offer companies in Los Angeles that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Go as long as you can on your own balance sheet. Don’t get over your skis with hires until you have clear product market fit. Don’t be afraid to discuss your ideas with smart people…there’s a very small chance they will steal your idea and a very large chance they will connect you with someone that can help you!
Where do you see the company going in the near term?
Watch for news coming out about some of our new partners. There are some big ones! We intend to work as hard and as fast as we can onboarding customers.
What’s your favorite spring destination in and around LA?
I live in Manhattan Beach, and our office is in El Segundo…as the weather warms, there’s nothing better than hopping on my e-bike and riding to work. Watching the sunset on the way home is amazing. I’m also an avid winter sports guy and spend tons of time in Mammoth. I love nothing more than spring skiing or snowboarding in a tee shirt and shorts on a long weekend!
