Native Moldovan, Ana Sirbu, has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the fintech world, taking just 11 years to climb to the top of her game. She joined BlueVine in 2015 and has swiftly become a leading figure which has serviced more than 125,000 SMEs through its innovative digital pathways, reports Fin Tech Magazine.
An enthusiastic advocate of fintech, Sirbu entered the world of finance by banking on Wall Street. She then became a technology investor at Google Capital. The Harvard-educated pioneer, Sirbu is known for her conscientious attitude to leadership and her dedication to building businesses that assist millions of customers and contribute to various communities.
Ana Sirbu came with great energy to the USA in 2003 to pursue her dreams at Harvard University. She has started out in investment banking, and worked in fintech for the past 10 years. She now leads BlueVine’s strategic finance, accounting, capital markets and business analytics.
She came to the U.S.for a one-year high school exchange organized and facilitated by the Soros foundation and the ASSIST exchange program. “I always appreciated U.S. universities and their approach to education and was lucky to spend four wonderful years pursuing my bachelor degree at Harvard. In my personal and professional life, I strive to create opportunity for others”, says Ana being interviewed for Silicon Valley Business Journal.
She led the company through three funding rounds which raised more than $270 million in debt and equity financing. Prior to BlueVine, she was an investor with Google Capital and a senior investor for Capital G, a growth equity investment group within Alphabet. She speaks seven languages, including English, Romanian, French, Russian, Italian and German.
“Working with the broader team to scale BlueVine more than seven times since I joined the company” she says. Her first paying job was teaching English as a high school sophomore to middle school students in Moldova when she was only 15. “I love to help others learn and seeing the students’ progress was endlessly gratifying”.
Earlier, Sirbu seemed to be on the fast track to a successful career on Wall Street after going from the investment banking analyst program at UBS in New York to the PE firm Silver Lake Partners. However, the allure of Silicon Valley was too strong, and she joined later the Paysafe Group’s payment startup Moneybookers, now known as Skrill, where she worked in a business development role focused on the company’s expansion into the U.S. market, first in London and then in San Francisco.
„Operating and investing experience complement each other nicely over time, as both sides strengthen each other,” she said. “Investment banking and PE are good training grounds to gain skills and understand how businesses work from the inside, how to grow a sustainable business”.
At Google Capital, she met more than 400 businesses, mostly fintech. “Over time, if you challenge yourself to think about a lot of different companies, you develop pattern recognition – it’s helpful to understand the needs of a business having looked at a large number of startups”, Sirbu explained.
One of the fintech firms she came across during her time was BlueVine, which provides working capital and growth financing to small businesses. She sensed a fit and an opportunity, so she decided to leave Google, never an easy decision, and dive head-first back into the startup world.
Tyler Sosin, a Partner at Menlo Ventures, a BlueVine investor, commented about Ana Sirbu as being instrumental in BlueVine’s impressive rise as one of the most successful fintech startups today. “I’m sure she will make even more significant contributions to BlueVine’s growth in her new role as CFO,” said Tyler for Crowd Fund Insider.
“We work hard every day to provide small businesses access to capital when they need it”, at her Fintech Innovator of the Year Award in 2019. She is hoping to see more women in technology over time and her ultimate goal is to contribute meaningfully to building a lasting business that helps millions of customers, contribute to the community.
Natalia Ghilascu
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