BBVA Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of Spanish banking group BBVA, has invested an undisclosed amount in Radius, a US-based company that provides sales intelligence by collecting small business data from across the web. BBVA plans to leverage off the Radius platform in the US and to explore strategic opportunities for international expansion.
Radius, formerly known as FWIX and founded by Darian Shirazi, is already backed by credit card provider American Express, which led a $12.4m series B funding round for the company in January 2012. Existing investor Blue Run Ventures (early stage venture capital investor focused on mobile opportunities) also participated in the series B funding. Previously, Radius raised a $6.8m series A funding through Blue Run Ventures and Comcast Ventures (corporate venturing arm of entertainment and cable communications company Comcast Corporation).
BBVA Ventures was established in 2013 and plans to invest $100 million in startups within the financial services industry. BBVA has already invested in the seed-capital fund and incubator 500 Startups Fund, as well as SaveUp, an online rewards programme startup, and Ribbit Capital, US-based venture capital investor in financial services startups.