US-based online small-business finance platform BlueVine completed a $49m series D round yesterday that included financial services firm Citi and e-commerce and financial technology company Rakuten.
Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, 83North and Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) also participated in the round. The corporates invested through subsidiaries Citi Ventures and Rakuten FinTech Fund.
BlueVine operates a cloud-based platform that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can use to access financing. It supplies between $5,000 to $100,000 for a business credit line and $20,000 to $2m for invoice factoring.
The company has so far provided more than $200m in working capital for businesses since it launched the service in early 2014. It will use the funding to increase the size of its team and expand its product range.
BlueVine has now raised $113m in venture capital altogether, having closed a $40m series C round in January this year that was led by Menlo Ventures and backed by Rakuten FinTech Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners, 83North, Correlation Ventures, SVB and unnamed private investors.
Eyal Lifshitz, founder and chief executive of BlueVine, said: “We are very proud of all we have accomplished in 2016 and excited to continue on our incredible growth trajectory.
“BlueVine is delivering unprecedented ease and convenience to meet SMB owners’ financing needs and help them achieve their goals.”