Venture debt

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Venture debt or venture lending or "venture leasing" is a type of debt financing provided to venture-backed companies by specialized banks or non-bank lenders to fund working capital or capital expenses, such as purchasing equipment. Unlike traditional bank lending, venture debt is available to startups and growth companies that do not have positive cash flows or significant assets to use as collateral. Venture debt providers combine their loans with warrants, or rights to purchase equity, to compensate for the higher risk of default.

Types of venture debt

Venture debt is typically structured as one of three types:

  • Growth capital: Typically term loans, used as equity round replacements, for M&A activity, milestone financing or working capital.
  • Accounts receivable financing: borrowings against the accounts receivable item on the balance sheet.
  • Equipment financing: loans for the purchase of equipment such as network infrastructure.

Venture lenders frequently piggyback on the due diligence done by the venture capital firm.

Venture debt providers are typically classified into two categories:

1. Commercial banks with venture-lending arms.

These banks typically accept deposits from the startup companies, and offer venture debt to complement their overall service offerings. Venture debt is usually not bread and butter for these providers. Debt lines from the banks start as low as $100,000 and for appropriately backed and/or companies with scale, can reach into the tens of millions in terms of facility sizes. Some players in this category are:

  • Bridge Bank
  • City National Bank
  • Comerica (NYSE:CMA)
  • East West Bank (NASDAQ:EWBC)
  • Silicon Valley Bank (NASDAQ:SIVB)
  • Square 1 Bank
  • Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC)

2. Specialty finance firms ("venture debt shops")Commercial banks at times can be limited in the dollar size of the loans, or strict covenants attached. The venture debt firms typically provide higher dollar size and more flexible loan terms. Some prominent ones are:

  • Eastward Capital
  • Escalate Capital
  • Hercules Technology Growth Capital (NASDAQ:HTGC) a public BDC; has moved to later stage transactions (think $10MM funding floor)
  • Horizon Technology Finance (NASDAQ:HRZN) a public BDC
  • Lighthouse Capital (may be dead in market now - but still a remnant portfolio)
  • Multiplier Capital (private debt fund)
  • ORIX Ventures (fka ORIX Venture Finance - venture debt arm of the Japanese financial services firm - NYSE:IX) has moved to late stage market, think early mezzanine
  • Oxford Finance (specializes in bio/pharma/healthcare)
  • Pinnacle Ventures (this is a crossover equity and debt firm)
  • Pivotal Capital Partners (private debt fund)
  • TriplePoint Capital (backed by Wafra)
  • Wellington Fund (Canadian based firm, multi-strategy)
  • Western Technology Investment (private debt fund)

Industry DynamicsAs a rule of thumb, the size of venture debt investment in a company is roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of venture capital (equity). The VC industry invested around $27B in the last 12 months. This implies around $9B potential debt market. There are several philosophies behind the various players. As a rule, they all prefer better branded VCs backing any potential portfolio company - some are more militant about this than others. They universally will provide capital to companies still in a money loss mode, with variances around comfort on timelines to breakeven, next round of capital, recently raised equity, etc.

Since most startups tap into venture debt to augment equity, the size of the venture debt industry follows the movement of the VC industry.

Financing terms

Venture debt lenders expect returns of 12–25% on their capital but achieve this through a combination of loan interest and equity returns. The lender is compensated for the higher rate of perceived level of risk on these loans by earning incremental returns from its equity holding in companies that are successful and achieve a trade sale or IPO.

Equipment financing can be provided to fund 100% of the cost of the capital expenditure. Receivables financing is typically capped at 80–85% of the accounts receivable balance.

Loan terms vary widely, but differ from traditional bank loans in a number of ways:

  • Repayment: ranging from 12 months to 48 months. Can be interest-only for a period, followed by interest plus principal, or a balloon payment (with rolled-up interest) at the end of the term.
  • Interest rate: varies based on the yield curve prevalent in the market where the debt is being offered. In the US, and Europe, interest for equipment financing as low as prime rate (US) or LIBOR (UK) or EURIBOR (Europe) plus 1% or 2%. For accounts receivable and growth capital financing, prime plus 3%. In India, where interest rates are higher, financing may be offered between 14% and 20%.
  • Collateral: venture debt providers usually require a lien on assets of the borrower like IP or the company itself, except for equipment loans where the capital assets acquired may be used as collateral.
  • Warrant coverage: the lender will request warrants over equity in the range of 5% to 20% of the value of the loan. A percentage of the loan's face value can be converted into equity at the per-share price of the last (or concurrent) venture financing round. The warrants are usually exercised when the company is acquired or goes public, yielding an 'equity kicker' return to the lender.
  • Rights to invest: On occasion, the lender may also seek to obtain some rights to invest in the borrower's subsequent equity round on the same terms, conditions and pricing offered to its investors in those rounds.
  • Covenants: borrowers face fewer operational restrictions or covenants with venture debt. Accounts receivable loans will typically include some minimum profitability or cash flow covenants.[1][2]

See also

References

External links