GetRunway, a London-based lender, has launched offering senior secured facilities of £150k to £750k or $200k to $1m to venture-backed, founder-led technology companies in the UK and EU, with the GCC to follow. It is positioned as an alternative to equity bridges, bank debt and revenue-based financing.
Founder Richard Harley co-founded, scaled and exited ScholarPack and spent four years as ventures director at Blackfinch Ventures, a UK venture capital trust with £100m of assets under management and 50 portfolio companies.
Harley said, "I built and sold a software company, then spent four years managing a venture capital portfolio. I kept meeting founders who were close to breakeven and had to sell more equity to get there, so I started GetRunway to provide that last piece of funding in a more flexible way."
Harley told Undiluted he is targeting the middle of the market, companies that are neither distressed nor hyper-growth, where options are limited once they pivot to profitability. He said, "A technology company with £3m of revenue that needs £500k to reach breakeven doesn't have many places to borrow it without taking the founders away from the business. Traditional venture debt is mostly built to sit alongside large equity rounds, and banks of course want profits or assets."
GetRunway lends from its own balance sheet and plans a small, select book of £4m to £5m deployed over the next 12 months.
Facilities are available in GBP, EUR, or USD, with terms of 6 to 24 months and amortising or bullet repayment. There is no early repayment penalty, no personal guarantee and no security over shares. Annual rate bands run from 14.5% to 22% before warrants, and warrant coverage, typically 0.1% to 0.5% of fully diluted equity, cuts the rate by 0.25 percentage points for each 1% of coverage. Harley said he prefers warrants but aims to be flexible.
Borrowers need $1m to $5m of annual recurring revenue (a minimum of $1m or £750k), gross margin of 65% or more, churn below 25%, 24 months of trading, a path to profitability within 12 months, at least four months of runway and founders holding 30% or more.