PMBC Pacific Mercantile Bancorp

Pacific Mercantile Bank (“the Bank”), the wholly owned subsidiary of Pacific Mercantile Bancorp (NASDAQ: PMBC), today announced that it has provided a $3.0 million revolving line of credit to Brand Value Accelerator (“BVAccel”).  In addition to the financing, BVAccel utilizes a full suite of Pacific Mercantile Bank’s depository products and treasury management services. 

Headquartered in San Diego, BVAccel is a premiere digital design, development, and marketing-focused eCommerce solutions and implementation agency dedicated to creating valuable consumer shopping experiences for national and multi-national companies across several industries.  The company’s comprehensive service offering of Design and Development, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), and Marketing Services allows it to serve as a leading “one-stop shop” for retailers and brands looking to expand their online commerce presence.  Since its inception in 2013, BVAccel has helped to accelerate 200+ leading consumer brands and retailers through more than 1,500+ campaign executions across various industry verticals.  The firm’s clients include RedBull, Rebecca Minkoff, Tommy John, Chubbies, Untuckit, and MVMT Watches.

“In just six years, BVAccel has grown into the largest Shopify Plus focused implementation consulting firm in the world,” said John Heaney, Chief Financial Officer of BVAccel.  “To complement our strong organic growth, we have launched an acquisition strategy designed to create the leading digital consulting agency helping direct-to-consumer brands connect online and offline commerce and grow internationally.  The team at Pacific Mercantile Bank was able to quickly understand our business consolidation strategy and work with our other financial partner to put together the financing we need to continue executing on our vision and growing our business.”

“This transaction is a great example of our collaboration with Merion Investment Partners, a leading small business investment company, to put together a comprehensive financial solution,” said Rob Parks, Senior Vice President at Pacific Mercantile Bank.  “Merion Partners provided Subordinated Debt and minority equity to BVAccel, while Pacific Mercantile Bank provided a revolving line of credit to fund the company’s ongoing working capital needs.”

“BVAccel has built a strong track record for generating positive results for its clients, which has led to significant growth in its digital consulting and design business,” said Lisa Wright, Senior Vice President at Pacific Mercantile Bank.  “The management team has an exciting vision and a proven track record for execution.  We look forward to supporting BVAccel’s continued success.”

For more information about Pacific Mercantile Bank and its commitment to helping companies succeed, visit www.pmbank.com.

About Pacific Mercantile Bank

Pacific Mercantile Bancorp (NASDAQ: PMBC) is the parent holding company of Pacific Mercantile Bank, which opened for business March 1, 1999. The Bank, which is an FDIC insured, California state-chartered bank and a member of the Federal Reserve System, provides a wide range of commercial banking services to businesses, business professionals and individual clients. The Bank is headquartered in Orange County and has seven locations in Southern California, located in Orange, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Bernardino counties. The Bank offers tailored flexible solutions for its clients including an array of loan and deposit products, sophisticated treasury management services, and comprehensive online banking services accessible at www.pmbank.com.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains statements regarding our expectations, beliefs and views about our plans to continue to build our loan portfolio and supporting systems and processes.  These statements, which constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. Often, they include words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "estimate," "project," or words of similar meaning, or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "would," "should," "could," or "may." These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the results discussed in these forward-looking statements because such statements are inherently subject to significant assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and are generally beyond our control. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following: the impact of interest rates and other external economic factors and competition among financial services providers. We undertake no obligation (and expressly disclaim any such obligation) to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. For additional information concerning factors that could cause actual conditions, events or results to materially differ from those described in the forward-looking statements, please refer to the factors set forth under the headings "Risk Factors" in our most recent Form 10-K and 10-Q reports and to our most recent Form 8-K reports, which are available online at www.sec.gov. No assurances can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what impact they will have on our results of operations or financial condition.

Pacific Mercantile Bank Contact:Robert AndersonEVP & Chief Banking Officer714-438-2500