Venture Debt Terms: Unpacked
Availability
Most lenders will prefer for all of the loan to be drawn at the Closing Date. Exceptions are tranched loans or delayed draws
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Costs
The borrower will be responsible to pay its costs plus the legal and out of pocket costs for the lender
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Closing Date
The next several posts will cover general terms of a venture debt term sheet
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Fees
Closing fee
Venture lenders, as with most lenders, will often charge a closing fee
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Maturity fee
Also called a Bonus Interest, End of Term Payment, Back End Fee or Repayment Fee and not to be confused with a Prepayment fee
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Prepayment fee
This fee is a cost to the borrower for the option of repaying a loan early
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Financial Covenants
A financial covenant is a company performance threshold placed into a loan agreement by the lender
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Interest Rate
The interest rate is the headline number in any venture loan.
If the return from warrants is modest or zero the majority of a lender’s return will come from the interest rate
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Last Payment
The standard 36 month amortizing venture loan will ask for the first principal payment at the end of Month 1 and the final principal payment at the end of Month 36
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Maturity Date
Often 36 months after the closing date. The loan will be fully repaid by this date
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Reporting
Venture backed startups – well run ones, anyway – have no shortage of reporting
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Security & Ranking
The term sheet will describe what ranking (typically senior) and type of security (typically all assets) the lender will take
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Tranches
There are times when the lender, or the company, prefer to fund in tranches rather than all at once
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Warrants
The returns for a venture loan come from two sources – cash (in the form of interest and fees) and equity (in the form of warrants)
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