What are the chances that VC funds use a credit facility?

I am not referring to venture debt, i am specifically asking about the use of facility to

  1. Dividend recaps (possibly when the venture has shown 2-3 years of FCF)
  2. Bridge the equity acquisition (seems unlikely)

Appreciate someone from the VC space that have written/seen IC memos to shed some light on you guys boost IRR besides banking on the upside plays.

5 Comments
 

2-3yrs FCF? For a VC backed company.... Hah.

In all seriousness, it's likely non-existent, for some of the deals i've worked on, we've included the assumption of having family office extend a credit facility to the startup if they required significant amounts of WC to scale. I'd think about it this way, there is already so much risk associated with VC investments, I don't see why we'd choose to add leverage (more risk) to early stage investments. In these transactions, we're not taking controlling positions where we have freedom to decide how to allocate any FCF. Most of the time early stage portco's retain any use all FCF for growth, so we wouldn't likely receive any of that to pay down a debt vehicle used in an investment

 
Most Helpful

Tenetur debitis excepturi voluptatem quas occaecati eaque temporibus vel. Omnis non cum quos sint reprehenderit totam qui consequatur. Maiores consequuntur rerum illo laudantium at optio consequatur. At eos itaque cum vel.

Career Advancement Opportunities

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.3%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Morgan Stanley 03 98.9%
  • Evercore 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.9%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.3%

Professional Growth Opportunities

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.9%
  • JPMorgan No 97.3%

Total Avg Compensation

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (53) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (28) $184
  • Intern/Summer Associate (15) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (76) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”