The dynamic e-invoicing sector – featuring such names as Tungsten, Basware and Taulia – has been increasingly worthy of attention due to the factoring services now being offered by several major players. BlueVine has processed millions of invoices to date. The company also offers a factoring capacity, whereby the issuers of receivables may be paid 85% of the value of their invoice up front from BlueVine, receiving most of the remainder of the cash-owed when the debtor pays. The service isn’t free of course – BlueVine deducts between a 0.5% and 1% fee per week.
The company’s Chief Executive Eyal Lifshitz indicated that businesses that choose to factor via the network typically end up with 96%-98% of the value of their invoices. BlueVine funds invoices via lines of credit – ranging from a minimum of $5k to a maximum of $50k, with the offer likely to expand up to $100k by the year’s end. The model differs from, say, the MarketInvoice mould – where invoices are instead sold to the platform which then assumes the right to repayment of those invoices.
BlueVine's Series B fundraise featured such VC groups as 83North, Greylock IL and Lightspeed Venture Partners. BlueVine reportedly plans to use the proceeds to further expand its sales and marketing efforts, to boost its operational headcount, to reach into new industry verticals and to add new software integrations.
The colossal flows of invoices processed by the likes of BlueVine have led a number of institutional investors to seek an active role as key liquidity providers to the e-invoice networks' factoring spin-offs. But the full scale of the opportunity may not have yet been fully realised.
