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WILMINGTON - When Jim Stewart left credit-card giant First USA in late 1999 to form Juniper Bank, venture capital flowed freely and the Internet teemed with all sorts of opportunistic ventures.
Fast forward three years.
The venture capital stream has slowed to a trickle, and the bloom's off the Net rose.
"A lot of the companies that were starting up when we did have fallen by the wayside," said Stewart, president of privately held Juniper Bank. "The environment's changed a lot since we started out."
But Juniper's still standing tall. And with a fresh infusion of $50 million from the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), Juniper's future looks solid.
Juniper started out as an online bank with an emphasis on credit cards, but that's changed since it opened for business in mid-2000.
Today, Juniper focuses on selling credit cards, particularly for affinity groups. Yet it does much of its marketing through direct mail or telemarketing, Stewart said, while retaining an online presence.
Stewart said the credit-card industry is a mature one. As...