Valley Bank to acquire Bluevine for $340 million, targeting early 2027 close

Valley National Bank will pay $340 million in cash and stock to acquire small-business banking fintech Bluevine, a deal that brings $2.1 billion in deposits and 175,000 active small-business clients. The transaction is expected to close early in 2027, after which Bluevine founder and CEO Eyal Lifshitz will oversee Valley's combined small-business arm. Valley, based in Morristown, New Jersey, said roughly 180 Bluevine research-and-development employees and engineers will join the bank. CEO Ira Robbins said the fintech's in-house technology and AI capabilities will reduce reliance on third-party providers and grow Valley's small-business customer base 20-fold, giving it a national distribution platform. The deal marks Valley's first fintech acquisition after five bank purchases over the past decade. COO Russ Barrett said bank M&A has established playbooks, while buying a technology company presented "really unique dimensions." The transaction grew from a chance meeting between Lifshitz and Barrett at the Money20/20 conference last year.