BlueVine, a leading online provider of working capital financing to small businesses, announced today it secured $18.5 million in financing.
The funding round was led by 83North, formerly Greylock IL, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with additional participation from Silicon Valley Bank, Correlation Ventures and other private investors. The funding round marks the first investment for 83North since announcing its new name and fund.
The financing will bolster the strong traction of BlueVine's cloud-based online invoice financing service, which has processed thousands of invoices since its beta launch in March 2014, providing several million dollars of working capital to U.S.-based small businesses. In addition, the financing will enable BlueVine to expand into new verticals, add new software integrations and double its employee base in 2015.
"The strong support from our investors is a testament to the caliber of our team, power of our vision and strength of customer demand for our solution," said Eyal Lifshitz, CEO and founder of BlueVine. "Like consumers, small business owners have grown to expect a delightful experience from each of their service providers. With existing solutions decades behind, small businesses are looking to technology-enabled, customer-centric solutions for their financing needs. We are excited to build on our rapid growth as BlueVine continues to become the service trusted by small businesses looking for a smart, simple, and convenient solution to fill their cash-flow gaps."
BlueVine also announced the addition of Ido Lustig, former fraud analytics group manager at PayPal, as VP of risk management. Lustig will lead the risk management and fraud prevention department at BlueVine. Lastly, the company announced the addition of three executives — two to the advisory board and one to the board of directors:
• Raymond Stern, former SVP of global business development at Yahoo and Intuit executive (SVP and CMO), joined the advisory board
• Taher Behbehani, CMO at BroadSoft who has held executive positions at BlackBerry, American Express and Time Warner Cable, joined the advisory board
• Stewart Wilkinson, former director at Harbourmaster Capital with more than 20 years of credit and securitization experience, joined the board of directors
"BlueVine has built a highly innovative online financing service, allowing small businesses to get their invoices funded with a click of a button," said Laurel Bowden, Partner at 83North. "With our investment in BlueVine, we are doubling down on our conviction that BlueVine has a clear vision of the path forward, and is able to continue executing on their customer-focused approach to deliver on the potential."
BlueVine has pioneered invoice financing, also known as "factoring," as the first fully online, cloud-based platform enabling rapid advances on outstanding invoices so small business owners can access the cash they need to pay bills, purchase inventory, fund payroll or grow their business. Businesses can qualify for credit lines of $5,000 to $50,000. Through its online service, BlueVine is bringing a Digital Age update to a factoring industry that dates back 4,000 years to King Hammurabi of Babylon.