Microsoft’s M12 joins $12 million funding extension in fintech startup BlueVine

Fintech startup BlueVine has added a further $12 million to its recently announced series E round of funding, bringing on board Microsoft’s venture capital (VC) unit M12 alongside the VC arm of finance giant Nationwide.
The additional funding tranche brings BlueVine’s total series E round to $72 million, having announced the initial $60 million cash injection just two months ago.
Founded out of Redwood City, California, in 2013, BlueVine serves small businesses with access to working capital so they can grow their businesses and cover costs when clients take a little too long to pay. BlueVine’s cloud-based platform offers invoice factoring, a payments system that advances companies a percentage of their outstanding invoices, in addition to credit facilities.
BlueVine has now raised around $590 million in funding since its inception, though it’s worth noting that around three-quarters of that came in the past year via debt financing — in May alone the company announced a $200 million revolving credit facility with Credit Suisse. However, BlueVine has attracted some high-caliber VC investors, with the likes of Menlo Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and 83North all contributing to its series E round.
Small business lending has become big business as traditional lenders are often reluctant to lend to small companies due to risk factors. Last week, eBay announced a tie-up with Square Capital to offer sellers loans of up to $100,000, while Amazon has loaned billions of dollars to small businesses selling on its platform. PayPal too recently acquired Swift Financial to expand its working capital program which launched back in 2013.
In addition to its funding extension, BlueVine has also now revealed that it has facilitated $1 billion in working capital funding since it first started a little more than four years ago.
“The company’s [BlueVine] market traction to-date has been impressive and we believe their technology and talent have set them on the path for continued growth,” noted M12 partner Elliott Robinson. “We look forward to seeing what they do next.”

Source: VentureBeat