Through this E round, BlueVine has added $72 million to its fund following an initial $60 million fund in May. The Redwood City, California company was founded in 2013 and gives small businesses access to capital to help grow. By covering costs with working capital from BlueVine, organizations can expand their digitization. The company’s cloud platform makes invoicing and payments more efficient. Since starting its funding BlueVine has gathered $590 million. However, much of the funds have comes from debt financing, such as $200 million in May through a credit facility with Credit Suisse. Still, BlueVine has attracted big-name investors, now including Microsoft’s M12. “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,” said M12 partner Elliott Robinson. “We look forward to seeing what they do next.”
Microsoft Ventures
Some people may know M12 better has Microsoft Ventures. The company decided to change the branding of its venture capital in April. Launched two years ago as Microsoft Ventures, the initial branding caused some confusion. That’s because Ventures was originally the name of Microsoft’s startup accelerator. That accelerator later became Microsoft ScaleUp, but the company was worried people would be confused. “Entrepreneurs still face confusion on the appropriate interface at Microsoft for their unique needs, whether that is equity funding, platform support, or a myriad of other important items,” said Nagraj Kashyap, corporate VP at M12 at the time. “Our name change gives us an opportunity to be clear about how we work with startups — we invest in them in exchange for equity.”
