Entrepreneur Perspective on Venture Lending
For today’s financial companies, venture lending is a smart source of financing. This is also called venture debt. This type is financing is given to companies to help them add capital that can supplement their equity financing and can grow using this amount.
How does Venture Debt work in real-life financing?
This is a loan that is designed to support fast-growing investor-backed startup companies. This venture debt is very helpful to startups to reduce the average cost of the capital as in the starting stage the company burns out of cash as it has to scale up quickly.
This debt can be considered as a bridge for the company to go to the next round of equity. This is the beginning of the relationship. This will be helpful for companies who want to raise their institutional venture capital and their business.
The main rules of venture debt
- Venture debt is not for replacing equity but it follows equity.
- The availability and terms of venture debt are always contextual.
- The type and size of the loan vary depending on the type of business, quality and quantity of the equity raised, and the objective of the debt raised along with the scale of the business.
Differences between equity and debt
Venture Debt is different when compared to equity. In the case of equity, the repayment of the loan is not contractually required. Equity is a long-term capital and is extremely flexible as it can be used to fund any business purpose if it is legal and correct. But if the execution of the project is not according to the plan then it will be difficult to restructure the equity.
Venture Debt is both short-term and long-term capital. All the characteristics like structure, price, and the duration of the capital will be completely based on the purpose of the capital. Regular coupons will be given to the investor for paying out whenever possible.
Venture Debt for entrepreneurs
Venture Debt is for companies that prefer growth over profitability. The venture lenders ideally invest in companies that are backed by venture backing as they cant trust every person.
This Debt is not available for companies that are in the early stage. But as venture debt is a form of debt it has to be paid back someday as in the case of normal debts. This debt is basically to provide additional capital for a period of three to nine months. This can help in supporting investment in the company for achieving milestones.
Effective Use cases for New Age Business Investments
- This venture debt can be used to attain growth without diluting equity.
- This debt is used to finance the working capital requirements for businesses that need significant investment in working capital.
Conclusion:
In Venture Debt the lender issues coupons that can not be converted later. In addition to this, the lender also subscribes to equity warrants. The repayment of the debt is according to the tenure they agreed to. The investment period of this debt will be between 1 to 3 years.
Comments are closed.