PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BlueVine, a leading online provider of working capital financing to small businesses, announced today it has closed $40 million in funding, bringing the company’s total funding to $64 million to date. This Series C funding was led by an investment from Menlo Ventures, with additional participation from new investor Rakuten FinTech Fund, follow-on investments from Lightspeed Venture Partners, 83NORTH, Correlation Ventures and private investors, as well as a new debt facility from Silicon Valley Bank.
“We are thrilled to welcome Menlo Ventures and Rakuten FinTech Fund to our esteemed group of investors and to embark on our next phase of growth,” said Eyal Lifshitz, CEO and founder of BlueVine. “BlueVine has ushered factoring into the modern age, while bringing much-needed transparency, efficiency and speed to the industry. With this capital infusion, our team is excited to work with more SMB owners to solve their cash-flow challenges on a greater scale.”
BlueVine will use this investment to bolster its management ranks, develop new features and fuel expansion into new verticals. BlueVine saw a 12x increase in funded invoices in 2015, and is on track to fund more than $200 million in working capital in the next year. Since launching in March 2014, BlueVine’s cloud-based invoice factoring service has helped thousands of small businesses obtain quick, easy access to funds they need to purchase inventory, cover expenses or expand operations.
“BlueVine is bringing automation and a modern web experience to factoring, a massive market that has yet to be optimized by technology,” said Tyler Sosin of Menlo Ventures. “We’re excited to partner with BlueVine to make working capital more accessible to the more than 20 million small businesses across the country."
BlueVine also announced it has increased its maximum credit line from $150,000 to $250,000 for qualified businesses. This represents a 5x increase in BlueVine’s maximum credit line since its previous funding round in January 2015. BlueVine, which offers credit lines starting at $5,000 with simple, transparent pricing, enables small businesses to get paid within 24 hours instead of waiting for Net 15, Net 30, Net 60 or Net 90 payment cycles.
“We are very impressed with BlueVine’s disruptive technology and how it financially empowers the small business community,” said Rakuten’s Oskar Mielczarek de la Miel, managing partner of the Rakuten FinTech Fund.
Sosin will join BlueVine’s board of directors and Miel will join as a board observer and strategic advisor.
About BlueVine
BlueVine gives small businesses access to funds they need to purchase inventory, cover expenses or expand operations. Lumpy cash flow and long payment cycles put a strain on small businesses’ working capital. BlueVine pioneered the first fully online, cloud-based platform for invoice financing, also known as “factoring,” enabling rapid advances on outstanding invoices. BlueVine’s quick, simple, online solution lets small businesses get paid on day one for invoices due in 15-90 days. Through its online service, BlueVine is bringing the 4,000-year old factoring industry into the digital age.
BlueVine is funded by Lightspeed Venture Partners, 83NORTH, Correlation Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Rakuten Fintech Fund and other private investors.
About Menlo Ventures
Menlo Ventures provides capital for multi-stage consumer and enterprise technology companies. Since 1976, the firm's market-driven analysis has led to the identification of and successful exits in innovative technology markets. Notable areas of investment have included Mobile/Mobile Marketplaces, Social & Ecommerce, Cloud, Storage & Big Data, Digital Advertising and Security. Menlo's guiding philosophy is to work side-by-side with entrepreneurs and founders as allies, serving actively on boards as company builders with decades of industry expertise, and opening access to a broad network of advisors, partners and technical talent. Menlo Ventures has $4.4 billion under management and is currently investing Menlo Ventures XII, a $400M fund with $15M allocated to the Menlo Talent Fund for fast seed funding. For more information, visit: http://www.menlovc.com.
About Rakuten FinTech Fund
Rakuten, Inc. (TOKYO:4755) is one of the world's leading Internet services companies, offering a wide variety of services for consumers and businesses with a focus on e-commerce, finance and digital content. The Rakuten FinTech Fund invests in disruptive financial services start-ups across the globe, with a focus on North America and Europe. The fund targets early and later stage investments in innovative financial companies that offer attractive return potential. Rakuten FinTech fund also acts as a bridge between entrepreneurs and Rakuten’s financial services, granting access to its expertise in banking, credit cards, insurance, securities and asset management in Japan and internationally. For more information visit http://global.rakuten.com/corp/.
