Sometimes companies need financing that's a little different than what a regular bank offers.
Instead of just getting a standard loan, they can get a custom product – think of it like a tailor-made suit!
It's built specifically for the venture's needs, often combining multiple asset classes, and circumventing rigid regulatory speed breakers.
Such products are really helpful when a company is going through a big push in innovation and needs exponential capital expenditure.
They need funds with a high tolerance for risks.
Example: A Biotech Startup
BioTech <X> is seeking Bespoke flexible capital solutions to fund Phase 3 clinical trials for their novel cancer treatment. The company requires a combination of debt financing and a strategic equity investment from a venture capital firm to de-risk the project and accelerate commercialization.
BioTech <X>, a company developing a new cancer treatment, needs help paying for the final, big tests needed to get it approved. A traditional loan from a bank is unfeasible. For such investments, a solution that caters to high-growth high-risk businesses is the only option.
AI Capital Expenditure and Bespoke Flexible Capital Solutions
The most recent experience is the rapid capital deployment in AI, when M&A volumes reached $4.3 trillion dollars.
Traditional banking models prefer established business models and companies with predictable cash flows.
For AI with a 3-year new business model, the goal is not becoming cash flow positive, but to scale the technology and leave behind the incumbents in social media and internet 1.0 & 2.0 behind. None of the leading AI firms are cashflow positive. Structurally, banks cannot support such ventures without inviting attention from regulators.
To meet the gap, private credit and a version of private credit - Bespoke Flexible Capital Solutions were designed. Such an influx of hundreds of billions of dollars in funds typically follows a once-in-a-lifetime societal event like the invention of the steam engine, electricity, or automobiles.
At least AI evangelists believe so.
This convergence of belief among the largest technology companies has spurred a demand for Bespoke flexible Capital solutions.
Bespoke flexible capital solutions include:
1) Venture Capital Equity: Early-stage funding
2) Convertible Debt: low-interest debt that can be converted to equity later on when certain milestones have been met
3) Revenue-Based Financing: Investors take a share of the revenue once a certain milestones have been met
4) Strategic Partnerships or Circular Deals (AI): Partnership between manufacturers and brands (NVIDIA and AI companies) or Retail and CPG brands (with revenue sharing agreements)
5) Corporate Bonds with long shelf life (like the 100-year long-term bond from Google) where pension funds and insurance companies shop.
6) In all such mix of financial products, flexibility - both in the payback period and the scale of the investment, are the 'keywords'
