Draper fintech startup Divvy sold to California company for $2.5B

Draper-based financial technology company Divvy is being purchased by Bill.com, a San Jose, California, company. Bill.com produces cloud-based software to automate back-office financial operations. Divvy's platform automates the way businesses keep track of expense accounts.

The deal entails a stock and cash transaction valued at approximately $2.5 billion. Pending regulatory approval, the deal should finalize by October, Bill.com said. 

Utah investors in Divvy include Album Venture Partners, Pelion Ventures Partners, Josh James of DOMO and Aaron Skonnard of Pluralsight.

“We are excited to be joining forces with Bill.com to help SMBs (small and medium-sized business) grow and thrive by modernizing and transforming their financial operations,” said Blake Murray, Divvy CEO and co-founder. “At Divvy, our customers are our true north, and they always have been. As we listened to our customers, we heard them ask for a comprehensive payments platform so that they don’t have to use multiple software systems to manage their finances. Today I’m proud that Divvy is joining Bill.com to bring the one-stop-shop platform that our customers and the market have been asking for.”

“Since founding Bill.com, I have been driven by the desire to build solutions that make a real difference for small and mid-sized businesses,” said René Lacerte, Bill.com CEO and founder. “Customers have been asking us to help them with their spend management, and I am excited that together with Divvy, we can deliver on that ask, furthering our vision to transform SMB financial operations. Our expanded platform will provide more automation and real-time information to SMBs, enabling them to make more informed decisions. We are excited to work with the talented Divvy team. We have a shared passion for helping SMBs succeed and both companies are driving our customers’ digital transformations. Together, we can further empower SMBs to transition quickly and easily.”

Since launching in February 2018, Divvy said it has signed more than 9,000 customers, a company blog post said. The startup, named a Forbes Next Billion Dollar Startup in 2019, offers an alternative to the corporate credit card for small businesses who don’t have the means to dole them out to staff. With Divvy, customers receive credit cards with limits predetermined by their finance managers, who set a budget for a project to “divvy” up among workers, eliminating the need for expense reports from competitors like Concur or Expensify, Forbes reported. 

Founded by Murray and Alex Bean in 2015, Divvy took in more than $32 million in revenue in 2019, the company told Forbes in a 2020 profile. The pandemic boosted Divvy, which has said new customers sign-ups surged 500 percent from March 2020 through Jan. 5, 2021. The company announced a $165 million funding round that month, after raising $200 million in April 2019.