Venture debt explained
Senior secured term debt, sized against revenue rather than assets.
Guides & Insights
A working reference for venture debt and growth credit: how the instruments are structured, what the terms mean, what financing actually costs and how a process runs. Written to be revisited, and kept current rather than replaced.
Start here
New to growth lending? Read these four in order. Together they cover what the instruments are, what they cost, and how a process runs.
Venture debt explained
What it is, how facilities are structured, what they actually cost, and the situations in which taking one is a mistake. Written for founders and finance teams approaching debt for the first time.
4 min readRead the guideUnderstanding growth lending
What the instruments are, who provides them, and how they differ from equity.
- 4 min
- 1 min
Debt or equity: choosing between them
How to decide which instrument suits the money you need.
- 1 min
Who lends to growth companies
The lender landscape in Europe, and how each type behaves.
Terms and structures
The mechanics of a facility, term by term.
- 1 min
Reading a debt term sheet
The terms worth negotiating, in the order they matter.
- 1 min
Covenants, and what breaching one actually means
The tests a lender sets, and what happens when you fail one.
- 1 min
Warrants and equity kickers
Why lenders take equity, and what it costs you.
Running a process
From first conversation to drawdown.
- 1 min
Preparing for a lender process
The data room, the model, and the questions to expect.
- 1 min
What lenders actually diligence
Six weeks of questions, and what each is really testing.
Market context
Who the lenders answer to, and what that means for your terms.
- 1 min
How credit funds are funded
Your lender has investors too. It shows up in your terms.