Author: Stefan Spazek

State of the Market: Debt Financing for Clinical Stage, Publicly Traded Life Sciences Companies

August 25, 2020May 30, 2024 Debt Finance Consulting

8 min readDOWNLOAD FULL REPORT Capital Advisors Group is a Boston-area based institutional investment advisor that has been helping venture-backed companies invest their cash assets for more than 22 years. Its debt finance consulting division helps venture-backed companies determine their optimum capital structures, identifies appropriate lenders, sources term sheets and negotiates deals. Executive Summary Capital Advisors Group’s…

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Managing Loan Covenants Amidst Pandemic Economic Impacts

June 11, 2020April 28, 2024 Economy & Rates

4 min readWatch the webcast: Click the above video webcast by Capital Advisors Group EVP Stefan Spazek. Some managers of emerging growth companies who took out loans prior to the pandemic may now be confronting the prospect of violating covenants written into their debt agreements. Debt covenants are financial and/or performance-based requirements that lenders put on borrowers…

Understanding Early-Stage Debt Financing: Why Good Deals Turn Bad

March 20, 2020May 30, 2024 Debt Finance Consulting

7 min readDOWNLOAD FULL REPORT Introduction At Capital Advisors Group, we have advised hundreds of early-stage companies on billions of dollars of debt transactions over the past 17 years. You might think that we’ve seen it all—but we haven’t, not even close. Every deal is different, and every company’s capital structure is unique. However, there are some…

WHEN, WHY and HOW MUCH: Common Misconceptions in Early-Stage Debt Financing

September 16, 2019May 30, 2024 Debt Finance Consulting

11 min readDOWNLOAD FULL REPORT Abstract Having advised hundreds of companies on billions of dollars of debt transactions over the past 16 years, Capital Advisors Group has encountered many common misunderstandings about early-stage debt financing. To address possible misperceptions at the outset, we always ask would-be borrowers three important questions: When are you considering pursuing debt financing?…

Early-Stage Debt Financing: Stakeholder Perspectives

June 10, 2018May 30, 2024 Debt Finance Consulting

9 min readIntroduction With relatively abundant availability of private financing, many companies today are choosing to remain private. And in recent years, privately held start-ups and growth stage companies seeking financing have increasingly looked to venture debt and other early-stage debt structures as extensions of their equity investments. Such funding, which tends to be less dilutive than…

Case Study: The Anatomy of a Deal

December 13, 2017May 30, 2024 Debt Finance Consulting

1 min readChallenge Capital Advisors Group (“CAG”), was engaged by a late clinical stage biotech firm (the “company”) with a strong investor syndicate that was seeking debt financing to supplement a recent equity raise and bridge through a projected potential acquisition date. The option to acquire the biotech firm was part of an exclusive R&D collaboration with…

A New Era of Term Debt Financing for Early-Stage Companies: Flexibility Expands as Hidden Costs Arise

October 24, 2017April 28, 2024 Debt Finance Consulting

5 min readFinancing projects and growth through debt has long been a staple of modern corporate economics. However, debt for companies with little credit history, a relative lack of fungible assets, negative cash flow and little to no revenue for the foreseeable future have historically presented an untenable risk for many traditional banks. Fortunately for these organizations,…

A New Era of Debt Financing: Flexibility Continues to Grow as Hidden Costs Arise

May 2, 2017May 30, 2024 Debt Finance Consulting

4 min readExecutive Summary This paper provides an update, in broad terms, on the state of the debt financing markets. Capital Advisors Group works with companies across industries that are early stage or, for other reasons, may not qualify for large commercial bank debt financing facilities. In this semi-annual review of the market, we will discuss how…

Now is a Good Time to Consider Refinancing Your Venture Debt

June 7, 2016April 28, 2024 Debt Finance Consulting

3 min readVenture debt has long been a useful tool for early-stage companies seeking more cash without the share dilution that comes from another visit to equity markets. But what happens to companies that have already negotiated healthy debt packages—especially at a time when venture capital investing has slowed, and when tapping the nearly dormant IPO market…

Three Cash Management Questions for Venture-Startup CFOs

March 21, 2016April 28, 2024 Investment Management

2 min readCFOs of emerging growth companies have always faced unique challenges in managing their corporate cash accounts as they juggle multiple rounds of financing, unpredictable burn rates and uncertainty about when products in development will turn into revenue. But in 2016, rising interest rates combined with recent regulatory reforms will make the cash management equation even…