Private Lender for Technology Companies

Secured Lending is a private, non-bank lender. We fund software, IT and technology companies against property held by the business, its directors or a family trust, and we do it in days rather than months. Loans run from $250,000 to $10,000,000, secured by a first or second mortgage over residential, commercial or industrial property. This is business purpose lending, and we lend our own funds, which is why a complete enquiry gets a decision in hours.

Who We Help

• Software and SaaS companies funding an engineering hire ahead of the revenue it produces
• Artificial intelligence companies carrying compute and model training costs ahead of the revenue
• Fintech and payments businesses funding a licence application, an audit or a compliance build
• Web3 and digital asset businesses that banks will not lend to
• IT managed service providers buying a competitor, or the contract book of one
• Digital agencies and systems integrators waiting out 60 and 90 day enterprise payment terms
• Hardware and device businesses paying for a production run before the purchase orders settle
• Companies carrying PAYG, GST and super built up through a year of deliberate reinvestment
• Founders paying out an early shareholder on a date fixed in a shareholders agreement
• Directors holding real property equity whose company was declined on profit or on tangible assets

How We Can Help You

• We assess the property and the exit, so a year of low profit while the company reinvested does not decide the outcome
• No profit and loss, forecast or cap table is required on an asset-based assessment
• We hold our own funds and our own credit authority, so a decision takes hours and settlement can happen within 24 hours
• We take a first or second mortgage, so a home loan or a commercial facility does not have to be broken to release capital
• Terms run from 1 to 24 months, and most borrowers are with us for 3 to 6 while the exit completes
• Rates start from 9.7% p.a., interest only for the term, so the facility is not competing with the cash being deployed into growth

Technology Finance Scenarios We Fund

Technology lending is not one product. A managed service provider buying a competitor needs a different structure to an agency carrying 90 day enterprise terms. Below are the scenarios we are asked for most often.

Your Exit Strategy

The exit is the most important thing we assess, ahead of the profit and loss and ahead of the credit file. Before we look at anything else we want the answer to one question: how do you intend to repay the loan, and on what date? Most technology companies have a clearer answer than they realise. A round with a signed term sheet, an R&D refund already lodged, a contracted invoice or milestone payment, a trade sale under way, or a refinance once there are accounts a bank will read are all exits we fund against.

• It is specific: a named event with a date, not an intention to raise at some point
• It is documented: a term sheet, a share sale agreement, a contract, or a lodged claim
• It completes inside the term, which runs from 1 to 24 months
• It clears the balance, the interest and the costs, not the principal alone
• There is a second exit if the first one is delayed, usually a refinance or a sale
• It is tested at the enquiry rather than late in the loan term

A documented, dated exit also improves the pricing, because it carries more weight with us than a year of thin profit ever will. Where the exit is vague, we would rather say so at the enquiry than let it become a problem with weeks left on the term.

Our Loan Products

• First mortgage: the cleanest position, used where the property is unencumbered or an existing facility is being refinanced in full
• Second mortgage: sits behind an existing first, so a home loan or a commercial facility does not have to be broken to fund an acquisition
• Bridging loans: covers the gap between a cost and the event that repays it, a round completing, an invoice clearing, or an R&D refund being paid
• Caveat loans: our fastest product, lodging a caveat rather than registering a full mortgage, for a completion date measured in days

Related Reading

• →Secured financing for startups
• →Private lender for business acquisition finance
• →Second mortgage loans for market expansion
• →Caveat loan for a time-sensitive acquisition

Bad Credit and Technology Finance

A company that spent two years building before it sold anything looks thin on paper, and a director who carried the business personally through that period often has the arrears to show for it. A bank assessment stops at the arrears. Ours looks at the property and the exit. Where there is equity inside 70% LVR and a dated event that repays us, defaults and missed payments do not decide the outcome. No profit and loss required on an asset-based assessment.

• →When serviceability, not security, is what failed
• →Bad credit business loans for property-backed borrowers

"Most of the technology files that reach us are not distressed. They are early. The revenue is contracted, the round is signed, the R&D refund is lodged, and none of it lands on the date the payment is due. We are not underwriting the software, we are underwriting the property and the event that repays us. Where there is a completion date on a term sheet or a share sale agreement, we are glad to look at it well before that date gets close."

Gino Tabila

Associate Director