Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. Description
Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. is a private equity, venture capital, and venture debt firm specializing in providing debt and equity to privately held venture capital and private equity backed companies and select publicly-traded companies. It offers growth and emerging growth capital and structured debt financing to companies at all stages of development and specializes in venture debt in the forms of senior secured and subordinated working capital loans, senior revolving loans and bridge loans, venture leasing, and select direct equity capital. The firm also provides private equity financing for recapitalizations, leveraged buyouts, spin-off transactions, mergers and acquisitions, public to private financings, and PIPEs. It invests in debt and equity investments in later stage, venture, and lower middle market companies. The firm invests primarily in structured debt with warrants and, to a lesser extent, in senior debt and equity investments. It primarily provides senior secured revolvers and term loans; Unitranche and "one-stop" financings; and mezzanine debt, including "last-out" and second lien financings. The firm typically provides non-control financing solutions used for refinancing of existing indebtedness; acquisition financing – control buyouts and minority recaps; dividend recaps; and growth capital. It prefers to invest in technology, energy technology, health care, life sciences, business services, and manufacturing sectors. Within technology, the firm seeks companies characterized by products or services that require advanced technologies, including communications and telecommunications infrastructure, computing and storage infrastructure, digital media and consumer Internet, e-commerce, enterprise software and services, mobility, networking systems, security, semiconductors components, clean technology, and technology enabled services. Within energy technology, it invests in advanced materials (bio-chemicals, solar materials), carbon (capture, conversion, and abatement), energy efficiency technologies (smart grid, demand response, and lighting), generation (solar, biofuels, and wind), recycling (conversion, diversion, and programs), storage (batteries, fuel cells), technology (management, measurement, controls), transportation (engine design, infrastructure), waste, agriculture, and water (treatment, waste water, and desalination). Within life sciences, the firm invests in biotechnology (including diagnostics), drug discovery and drug delivery, healthcare services, life sciences instrumentation, medical devices, health care services, and specialty pharmaceuticals. It provides growth capital financing solutions with a focus on buy-out or spin-out financing solutions; cash flow based customized financing solutions; company, asset specific, or intellectual property acquisition; convertible, subordinated and/or mezzanine loans; domestic or international expansion; growth capital term loans; vendor financing; established stages of development; and venture debt, asset-based financings with a focus on cash flow-based customized financing solutions; domestic and international account receivable credit lines or revolvers; equipment and infrastructure financing; equipment leases; and facilities build-out and/or expansion. The firm also provides bridge financing to IPO or mergers and acquisitions or technology acquisition with a focus on dividend recapitalizations and other sources of investor liquidity; IPO financing; and merger and acquisition financing. It also provides seed and early-stage financing. It provides specialized energy technology industry financings with a focus on international special purpose entity (SPE) financing; pilot and production facility financing; pre-commercialization facility financing; situation-specific financing (satisfying customer contract requirements, pre-funding strategic relationship, etc.); and supplemental joint venture financing. The firm provides short-term bridge financing. It also provides asset-based financing with a focus on cleantech lab/testing facilities initial build-out and/or expansion; domestic and international working capital revolving lines of credit; equipment loans/leases; inventory build-out; manufacturing capacity expansion. Within life sciences, it provided growth capital financing solutions with a focus on royalty-based financing of existing or future new drugs or medical devices. The firm also provides asset-based financing with a focus on equipment leases and loans; facilities build-out and/or expansion (lab, manufacturing capacity, inventory, etc.). The firm also considers investment in the Mid-Atlantic regions particularly in the areas of software, biotech and information services. It seeks to invest in companies with capital needs from $5 million to $30 million and revenues of $10 million to $200 million, generating EBITDA of $2 million to $15 million, focused primarily on business services, communications, electronics, hardware, and healthcare services. The firm provided loans in the range of $1 million and $30 million and can underwrite transactions up to $40 million. It seeks to provide emerging growth capital with focus on first institutional round (Series A/B). The firm also invests in expansion stage with focus on follow-on rounds of growth capital (Series B-F). It also co-invests with other private equity firms. Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. was founded in December 2003 and is based in Palo Alto, California with additional offices across United States.
