SME financing innovator BlueVine has partnered with cross border payments specialist Veem to make it easier for small business owners to save more on cross border payments.
“If you rely on your bank for sending cross border payments, you’re not alone,” BlueVine VP of Business Development and Partnerships Charles Amadon wrote in a blog post announcing the agreement. “Most smaller businesses do. But ask a small business owner about their experience making cross border payments through their bank and you’re likely to get an earful.”
Adding statistics to the pitch, Amadon pointed to an American Bankers Association payments survey that indicated that payments in general were a major pain point for SMEs. The survey showed that 87% of respondents said their bank did not have “a formal payment strategy,” and that 54% considered their bank’s attitude toward innovation in payments as a “wait and see approach.”
BlueVine offers small businesses financing options including an invoice factoring line of credit and a traditional business line of credit. The company’s invoice financing product provides a credit line from $20,000 to $5 million with flat advance rates of 85% to 90%, free ACH, and $15 per wire. The business line of credit provides a revolving financing option up to $200,000 with interest rates as low as 4.8%. SMEs can get approved as quickly as 24 hours.
For its part, Veem is announcing the partnership as an opportunity for its SME customers to get the kind of preferential financing options typically enjoyed by larger companies. “We’re partnering with BlueVine to provide fast and flexible working capital financing for Veem’s customers,” the company announced in a blog post. “Funding doesn’t have to be what sinks small businesses.”
Founded in 2013, BlueVine demonstrated its SME financing platform at FinovateFall 2014. The company began the year with a decision to increase the limit on its invoice factoring line of credit to $5 million. Also this year, BlueVine appointed Ana Sirbu, the company’s VP of Finance and Capital Markets, to the post of Chief Financial Officer.
Named one of the top 360 entrepreneurial companies in America by Entrepreneur magazine, BlueVine won Best Business Finance Provider, North America at the trade finance global awards last fall. Also in the fall, BlueVine picked up $130 million in debt financing courtesy of Silicon Valley Bank, SunTrust Bank, Bank Leumi, and TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corporation. The company has raised $318 million in total funding, and includes Fortress Investment Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, and 83 North among its investors. Eyal Lifshitz is CEO.