BlueVine raises $102.5M to build small business banking

Bluevine  announced it has raised $102.5 million in a Series F round. This funding round was led by ION Crossover Partners with participation from all major existing investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, 83North, SVB Capital, Nationwide, Citi Ventures, Microsoft’s venture fund, M12, and private investors. The round also included new investors MUFG Innovation Partners Co., Ltd, O.G. Tech – Eyal Ofer’s VC, Vintage Investment Partners, ION Group, Maor Investments and additional private investors.

Established in 2013, BlueVine is a Redwood City-based company offering financing options for small businesses. The funds will help develop future BlueVine Business Banking features, such as integrations with BlueVine’s existing working capital solutions – Line of Credit, Invoice Factoring and Term Loan – which have already provided over 20,000 small business owners with access to more than $2.5 billion in financing since the company’s inception in 2013. The funding round will also help continue to grow the BlueVine team, including hires across engineering, product and revenue organizations.

Bottom Line: Nationwide is an investor in BlueVine and Next Insurance, and according to an ex-Next employee, Guy Goldstein, the CEO of Next Insurance does have plans to expand beyond small business; perhaps to “loans, payroll, business plans, etc.” Although, insurance will probably be the main focus for the foreseeable future (3-4 years).