Citibank's Silicon Valley-based venture arm has made an undisclosed strategic investment in working capital firm BlueVine.
The investment by Citi Venures represents a follow-on to BlueVine’s $40 million Series C financing in January 2016, which will be used to scale the company's cloud-based working capital financing platform for small businesses and expand into new market segments.
“With a portfolio that includes Square, Betterment, DocuSign and Optimizely, Citi Ventures invests in segment leaders that are reinventing industries,” says Eyal Lifshitz, founder and CEO of BlueVine. “Citi’s industry expertise and large customer base make them an ideal partner as we accelerate our efforts to make working capital more accessible for small business owners.”
Other recent developments at BlueVine include the appointment of former Google Capital manager Ana Sirbu to vice president of finance and strategy and the launch of Flex Credit, an on-demand, revolving line of credit offered through the same online platform.
Lifshitz says BlueVine is currently on track to fund more than $200 million in working capital in 2016.
“BlueVine’s platform addresses pain points like cash flow management for the growing market of small businesses in need of financing,” says Arvind Purushotham, managing director and co-head of Venture Capital at Citi Ventures. “We’re excited to champion and accelerate the growth of a company that is setting the industry standard in providing expanded access to capital on an easy-to-use digital platform.”