Bluevine

– HQ: San Francisco
– Founded: 2013
– Raised: $768M (Crunchbase)
– Valuation: $1B+ (estimate)

BlueVine is one of the most visible alt-lenders online with monthly traffic topping 1 million in some months. The 8-year-old startup tops our list of 26 Digital SMB Lenders if you ignore Kabbage, which is now part of American Express (Kabbage remains on our list since it’s currently an independent brand).

The company says it has originated more than $5B in funding since its founding in 2013. Assuming typical growth patterns, that means they are likely at an annual run rate higher than $1B. However, that number clearly doesn’t include PPP loans. The company said it originated $8.9B in PPP loans to more than 300,000 businesses ($4.5B in 2020 and $4.4B in 2021).

By comparison, in 2020 Kabbage originated $7B in PPP loans to 300,000 small businesses compared to Bluevine’s $4B. According to Kabbage, prior to the PPP spike, the entire U.S. online lending industry provided about $10B in funding annually.

The banking product, launched in late 2019, has more than 40,000 customers with $250M in deposits according to a mid-2021 interview with COO Steve Allocco.


Products

BlueVine is expanding beyond its core commercial credit line business, adding checking accounts, invoice factoring, and soon insurance services.

Primary:

  • Small business credit lines (max $250k)
  • Invoice factoring (max $5M)

Secondary

  • Business checking (with 0.6% interest on first $100k)
  • Online billpay
  • Insurance (coming soon, see press release)

Partners

Company Vitals

– Website visitors: 480,000 (SimilarWeb, Sep 2021)
– Employees: 460 (Pitchbook)
– Articles: 102 (Crunchbase)
Linkedin: 34,000 followers
– Twitter:  4,400 followers
– Trustpilot:  4.4 (6,700 reviews)

FAB Score = 187