Runway Growth Finance Q2 2025 Earnings Report

Runway Growth Finance EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.38
• Consensus EPS: $0.39
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$0.01
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Runway Growth Finance Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $35.15 million
• Expected Revenue: $34.27 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$880.00 thousand
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Runway Growth Finance Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2025
• Date: 8/7/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, August 7, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 5:00PM ET

Runway Growth Finance (NASDAQ:RWAY) is a business development company specializing investments in senior-secured loans to late stage and growth companies. It prefers to make investments in companies engaged in the technology, life sciences, healthcare and information services, business services and select consumer services and products sectors. It prefers to investments in companies engaged in electronic equipment and instruments, systems software, hardware, storage and peripherals and specialized consumer services, application software, healthcare technology, internet software and services, data processing and outsourced services, internet retail, human resources and employment services, biotechnology, healthcare equipment and education services. It invests in senior secured loans between $10 million and $75 million.

Runway Growth Finance Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: NII per share of $0.38 covered the base dividend of $0.33, demonstrating sufficient core earnings coverage.
• Negative Sentiment: Net investment income decreased to $13.9 M from $15.6 M year-over-year, driven by higher interest expense and accelerated deferred financing costs, with a $1.5 M net realized loss.
• Positive Sentiment: Integration with the BC Partners Credit platform expands origination channels and financing solutions, leveraging a $9 B+ credit platform to enhance deal flow.
• Positive Sentiment: Runway funded $37.8 M in new loans in Q2 across technology, healthcare, and consumer verticals and announced subsequent co-investments in FHAS and DigiCert, reflecting a robust pipeline.
• Positive Sentiment: Credit metrics remain strong with a 2.33 weighted average risk rating, 29.8% LTV, 0.2% nonaccruals, and ample liquidity ($297 M cash, $291 M capacity) plus a $25 M share repurchase program.

Presentation

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Runway Growth Finance Second Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would like now to hand the conference over to Quinlan Abel, Assistant Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[Quinlan Abel, Assistant Vice President of Investor Relations at Runway Growth Finance]

Thank you, operator. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Runway Growth Finance conference call for the quarter ended 06/30/2025. Joining us on the call today from Runway Growth Finance are David Spring, Chief Executive Officer Greg Greifield, Chief Investment Officer of Runway Growth Capital LLC, our investment advisor and Tom Ratermann, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Runway Growth Finance's second quarter twenty twenty five financial results were released just after today's market close and can be accessed from Runway Growth Finance's Investor Relations website at investors.runwaygrowth.com. We have arranged for a replay of the call to be available on the Runway Growth Finance webpage.

[Quinlan Abel, Assistant Vice President of Investor Relations at Runway Growth Finance]

During this call, I want to remind you that we may make forward looking statements based on current expectations. The statements on this call that are not purely historical are forward looking statements. These forward looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and are subject to uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward looking statements, including without limitation, market conditions caused by uncertainties surrounding interest rates, changing economic conditions, and other factors we identify in our filings with the SEC. Although we believe that the assumptions on which these forward looking statements are based are reasonable, any of those assumptions can prove to be inaccurate, and as a result, the forward looking statements based on those assumptions can be incorrect. You should not place undue reliance on these forward looking statements.

[Quinlan Abel, Assistant Vice President of Investor Relations at Runway Growth Finance]

The forward looking statements contained on this call are made as of the date hereof, and Runway Growth Finance assumes no obligation to update the forward looking statements or subsequent events. To obtain copies of SEC related filings, please visit our website. With that, I will turn the call over to David.

[David Spreng, Founder, Chairman & CEO at Runway Growth Finance]

Thank you, Quinlan, and thanks everyone for joining us this evening to discuss our second quarter twenty twenty five financial results. Today, I'll discuss our second quarter financial highlights, reflect on the first half of the year operationally, and share our outlook for the remainder of 2025. Then Greg will provide an update on the venture landscape. And to conclude, Tom will dive deeper into our financial performance. For the second quarter, Runway delivered total investment income of $35,100,000 and net investment income of $13,900,000 The second quarter posed economic uncertainty due to evolving tariff policy and the potential knock on effect to our portfolio companies.

[David Spreng, Founder, Chairman & CEO at Runway Growth Finance]

Overall, the BDC sector proved resilient, and we believe our portfolio has demonstrated its ability to perform throughout all economic cycles. Amidst this macro backdrop, our focus has continued to be on driving shareholder value through our enhanced positioning as part of the BC Partners Credit platform. This focus has been pivotal as we navigate the current venture debt environment and continue to be the best partner possible for our underlying portfolio investments. As part of the BC Partners platform, Runway is benefiting from broadened origination channels and an expanded set of financing solutions that we have already put into action in the second quarter. Our integration within the BC Partners ecosystem empowers runway growth capital at the firm level to continue to make our target investments between 30,000,000 and $150,000,000 overall.

[David Spreng, Founder, Chairman & CEO at Runway Growth Finance]

That said, our ability to partner with BC Partners on these deals increases our optionality and allows us to allocate the right investment size to our BDC. We believe our sweet spot is a check size between $20,000,000 and $45,000,000 for the BDC. Overall, these strategic imperatives allow us to focus on three main objectives. First, to further optimize our portfolio through diversification of investment size. Second, to expand the financing solutions we offer.

[David Spreng, Founder, Chairman & CEO at Runway Growth Finance]

And third, to maximize our existing commitments through consistent monitoring and diligent risk mitigation. With these pillars in place, we are confident in our ability to move opportunistically when new investments that meet our high credit bar are sourced. We can be nimble in our execution while leveraging the backing of BC Partners' fully scaled $9,000,000,000 credit platform. Our second quarter investment activity demonstrates our ability to execute against our portfolio optimization initiatives, while continuing to maximize our existing portfolio. In the second quarter, we executed on three investments in new and existing portfolio companies across the high growth verticals of technology, healthcare, and select consumer sectors, representing $37,800,000 in funded loans.

[David Spreng, Founder, Chairman & CEO at Runway Growth Finance]

We completed a $40,000,000 commitment in auto books, an accounting and bookkeeping solution, 27,000,000 at close. During the quarter, we also completed a new 20,000,000 commitment in swing education, an online marketplace that connects schools with qualified substitute teachers, funding 8,000,000 at close. 10,000,000 of this commitment to swing education is a revolving line of credit, further reflecting the expanded solutions upon which we are executing. Finally, we completed a $2,800,000 commitment in our existing portfolio company, Marley Spoon. Subsequent to quarter end, we announced a new $10,000,000 co investment with BC Partners in Federal Hearings and Appeal Services, or FHAS, funding $7,500,000 at close.

[David Spreng, Founder, Chairman & CEO at Runway Growth Finance]

FHAS is a trusted national leader in providing business processing and outsourcing services to federal and state government agencies. Additionally, last week, we made a new $10,000,000 investment in DigiCert Inc, funding $9,200,000 at close. DigiCert is a leader in offering high assurance digital certificates, certificate management solutions, and public key infrastructure solutions, which provide companies a better way to authenticate information on the Internet. Looking ahead, we are pleased with our pipeline and remain hyper focused on our efforts to provide superior risk adjusted returns for our shareholders. With that, I'll turn it over to Greg to provide a deeper look at our portfolio activity and outlook on the venture debt landscape.

[Greg Greifeld, CIO at Runway Growth Finance]

Thanks, David, and good evening, everyone. I want to share a little more about our progress in optimizing the portfolio and what we're seeing across the venture debt market. During the 2025, Runway completed two investments in new portfolio companies and one investment in an existing portfolio company, representing $37,800,000 in funded loans. I want to take a moment to highlight our investment in Swing, which David touched on earlier. We are providing a $20,000,000 senior secured loan to the company, dollars 10,000,000 of which is a revolving line of credit, marking our first of such arrangement.

[Greg Greifeld, CIO at Runway Growth Finance]

This opportunity is significant for a few reasons. First, swing is an ideal check size to help diversify our portfolio. Second, the delayed draw enables us to grow with the company, allowing us to be an effective partner at this stage in its life cycle. And third, we believe education technology is a high growth sector that is insulated from many of the macro headwinds we are experiencing today. As our funnel widens and our pipeline grows, we believe there will be more opportunities like Swing that allow us to flex our newly added platform scale and growing solution set.

[Greg Greifeld, CIO at Runway Growth Finance]

We look forward to updating you on our expanded offerings in the quarters to come. Turning to credit quality. Our weighted average portfolio risk rating remained at 2.33 in the second quarter of twenty twenty five, consistent with the 2025. Our rating system is based on a scale of one to five, where one represents the most favorable credit rating. As with previous quarters, we calculated the loan to value ratio for loans in our portfolio at the end of the first quarter and at the end of the second quarter.

[Greg Greifeld, CIO at Runway Growth Finance]

We found that our dollar weighted loan to value ratio increased slightly from 29% to 29.8%. Our total investment portfolio had a fair value of 1,020,000,000 an increase of 2.1% from $1,000,000,000 in the 2025. Our loan portfolio is comprised of 97% floating rate assets. To reiterate, we have structured our portfolio to be comprised almost exclusively of first lien senior secured loans, reflecting our focus on risk mitigation and the diligence with which we manage our investments. As David mentioned, we faced a muted operating environment in the second quarter, but we're pleased to see consistent origination activity and leverage.

[Greg Greifeld, CIO at Runway Growth Finance]

Turning now to our outlook on the market. As we discussed on our first quarter twenty twenty five earnings call, amidst a strained deal environment, we've observed a fundamental shift among venture backed companies, who we believe are compelled to demonstrate growth in order to attract investment or achieve a successful exit. Despite some encouraging signs of life in the IPO market, we do not expect a significant increase in M and A for our target sectors for the balance of the year. The management teams we are speaking with today are prepared for an exit, whether that's an IPO or M and A, but have the flexibility to be selective due to their ongoing strong financial performance. This ties back to our focus on the highest quality late and growth stage companies within technology, healthcare and select consumer products and services industries.

[Greg Greifeld, CIO at Runway Growth Finance]

We believe our investors benefit from exposure to the venture ecosystem through a portfolio of assets at the top of the capital stack. Taking a closer look at the BDC sector and venture debt in particular, the market continues to navigate the ongoing headwinds of constrained equity allocations. Additionally, as exits halted in the aftermath of tariff announcements during the second quarter, companies are focusing on preserving optionality to safeguard against macro turbulence. According to PitchBook's latest Venture Monitor report, companies are opting for larger raises to extend runway and defer fundraising in an increasingly competitive environment. As we've observed in prior quarters, fundraising momentum in the second quarter was concentrated among select AI deals, with PitchBook reporting that AI represented 6436% of 2025 deal value and count, respectively.

[Greg Greifeld, CIO at Runway Growth Finance]

We believe this will remain the state of play in the coming quarters, but we are confident in the pipeline we are building. Further, our fundamental investment philosophy continues to generate consistent originations as we focus on portfolio optimization. With the backing of a world class platform in BC Partners, our combined deal teams are positioned to execute on opportunities that meet our high credit bar and offer purposeful diversification for the benefit of shareholders. Now I want to turn the call over to Tom to share more on financial results.

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

Thanks, Greg, and good evening, everyone. We generated total investment income of $35,100,000 and net investment income of $13,900,000 in the 2025, a decrease compared to $35,400,000 and $15,600,000 in the 2025. Our overall decrease can be attributed to increased interest expense and the acceleration of certain deferred financing costs associated with the refinancing of our senior unsecured notes, which was required as a result of the BC Partners transaction with our advisor. Importantly, on a per share basis, we delivered $0.38 of NII in the second quarter, which covered our base dividend. Our debt portfolio generated a dollar weighted average annualized yield of 15.4% for the 2025, holding flat quarter over quarter and increasing from 15.1% for the comparable period last year.

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

Moving to our expenses. Total operating expenses were $21,200,000 for the 2025, an increase from $19,800,000 for the 2025. We recorded a net realized loss on investments of 1,500,000.0 in the 2025 compared to a net realized gain on investments of 6,100,000 in the 2025. During the second quarter, we experienced one prepayment totaling 25,000,000 and scheduled amortization of 4,200,000.0. As of 06/30/2025, we had only one loan on nonaccrual status to Mingle Healthcare.

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

This loan has a cost basis of 4,800,000.0 and fair market value of 2,400,000.0 or 50% of cost, representing just 0.2% of the total investment portfolio at fair value as of 06/30/2025. We'd like to recognize that Mingle is making cash interest payments on its loan. We're confident that our thoughtful portfolio management and ability to address potential issues that may arise combined with our ongoing commitment to supporting borrowers throughout the entire loan life cycle will enable us to achieve beneficial outcomes for all parties involved. As of 06/30/2025, Runway had net assets of 498,900,000.0 decreasing from 503,300,000.0 at the end of the 2025. NAV per share was $13.66 at the end of the second quarter, an increase of 1.3% compared to $13.48 at the end of the 2025.

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

At the end of the 2025, our leverage ratio and asset coverage were one point zero five and one point nine five times respectively, compared to point nine nine and two point zero one times respectively at the end of the 2025. As of 06/30/2025, our total available liquidity was $297,000,000 including unrestricted cash and cash equivalents. We had borrowing capacity of $291,000,000 As previously discussed, during the second quarter, we restructured our privately placed senior unsecured notes as a result of the triggering of the change in control provision applicable to the company's external adviser. This required us to make an offer to repurchase our senior unsecured notes resulting in a prepayment of the August 2027 notes along with an exchange and upsize of our December 2026 notes. Our total unsecured notes, excluding baby bonds, increased from 115,000,000 to 132,000,000.

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

As of 06/30/2025, we had a total of 164,900,000.0 in unfunded commitments, which was comprised of $135,500,000 to provide debt financing to our portfolio companies and $29,400,000 to provide equity financing to our JV with CADMA. Approximately 35,700,000.0 of our unfunded debt commitments are eligible to be drawn based on achieved milestones. We continue to believe we have sufficient liquidity to support existing unfunded commitments, selective portfolio growth and potential share repurchases. On 05/07/2025 our board of directors approved a new stock repurchase program of 25,000,000 which will expire on 05/07/2026 or earlier if we repurchase the total amount of the stock authorized for repurchase under the program. During the second quarter, we repurchased 815,408 shares.

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

Finally, on 08/06/2025, our board of directors declared total distributions for the third quarter of 36¢ per share comprised of a 33¢ regular dividend and a 3¢ supplemental dividend. We continue to believe Runway presents a great opportunity for prospective investors that are seeking exposure to a high quality venture and growth lending portfolio with attractive yield characteristics. Management has deep conviction that Runway offers the right combination of excellent credit quality, institutional scale, and a clear opportunity for equity upside in the quarters to come. With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. And the first question will come from Doug Harter with UBS. Your line is open.

[Cory Johnson, Associate Analyst at UBS Securities LLC]

Hi. Thank you. This is actually Corey Johnson on for Doug. So I just had a question. So non accruals have been pretty they're very low.

[Cory Johnson, Associate Analyst at UBS Securities LLC]

But I noticed that, I guess, take as a percent of the total investment income has been increasing over the last several quarters. I just wanted to know how much of that is sort of like force pick versus perhaps just companies using that optionality? I think earlier you sort of mentioned that companies are preparing for possible downturn or difficult situations. So I just want to see how much of that might be just related to optionality versus being forced into PIK.

[Greg Greifeld, CIO at Runway Growth Finance]

So PIK is, we use it in our portfolio is really, as you know, for two reasons. One, we use it for offensive and secondly, defensive reasons. So we'll use it to help get ahead of an issue that a borrower might have from a short term cash flow perspective. But we'll also use it to help win transactions and as rates have remained relatively high for a period of time, we've seen more transactions were baked in upfront. There was some interim period of pick and we had one loan in the fourth quarter that we closed on that has PIK provision and that's really the change there.

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

Yeah, I would add to that, that really echo what Tom said, it's something that we folks typically think of it from a defect defensive perspective in terms of supporting your portfolio. But as we look not only in terms of keeping deals in our portfolio, but also ability to win new deals, it's definitely a tool we have in our toolkit and something we try to use judiciously, but definitely something that we try to do to either keep the best loans in our portfolio or win new deals.

[Cory Johnson, Associate Analyst at UBS Securities LLC]

Great. Thanks. Just one final question. Just in regards to the share repurchase, just wondering, like, you know, what how do you think that your repurchase program might play out from here going going forward over the next few quarters? Do you plan on, you know, being more aggressive with it, or is it sort of just, like, programmatic depending on where the stock price is at?

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

Well, when we establish the execution plan for the share repurchase program, we do it through a 10b5-one and we set up a rubric that's based on where the stock trades as a percent of NAV. So we really don't obviously disclose those marks. But to answer your question directly, we'll use it. We use it more aggressively at a higher discount to NAV because it's more accretive. And we use it less aggressively when the when that discount diminishes.

[Cory Johnson, Associate Analyst at UBS Securities LLC]

Great. Thank you.

[Operator]

And the next question will come from Melissa Weddle with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

[Melissa Wedel, VP - U.S. Equities Research at JP Morgan]

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions today. First one, I wanted to touch on some of the refinancing that was done and changes to facilities during the quarter. I apologize if I missed it. Were there any sort of one time costs associated with that that we should be aware of?

[Greg Greifeld, CIO at Runway Growth Finance]

Yeah. Thanks for the question, Melissa, and it's a good one. So in the quarter itself, in Q2, we had about $04 a share that was related to increased interest expense. About a penny and a half of that $0.04 was one time costs associated with the acceleration of the deferred financing costs on the existing secured notes. And then about $0.25 is really an ongoing increase to interest expense related to taking out 4.25 notes with seven plus percent notes.

[Melissa Wedel, VP - U.S. Equities Research at JP Morgan]

Okay, great. That's very helpful. Wanted to also go back to your comment about, I believe it was 35,000,000 of unfunded commitments that are eligible to be drawn based on certain milestones that have been achieved. I'm sure this varies over time, but in an environment like this one, how much of that 35,000,000 might you expect to be drawn down and how quickly might that happen?

[Greg Greifeld, CIO at Runway Growth Finance]

It obviously depends on the economic environment, but the performance of the companies are pretty good and those milestones are achieved, usually because the companies are performing at or above plan, which oftentimes means that they're generating more cash or they've crossed into that cash flow positive territory. So it does somewhat reduce the chance that it'll be drawn, but I would say historically, it's probably about fifty fifty. We've looked the amount of unused commitments that expire without use and it's a pretty significant number. It's over 50%.

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

And I just tack on to that to take a moment to highlight the quality of the credits in the book. You know, as we said, the rating remains pretty static, which we feel good about it. And the number of companies that are eligible to draw based on the milestones is a good percentage.

[Melissa Wedel, VP - U.S. Equities Research at JP Morgan]

It did jump out a little bit at me that that might be the case. Just related to that, if we'll tack on one more question. You mentioned a few post quarter end deals that have been announced previously, and then I think you added some today. In terms of prepayment activity, is there anything that you have line of sight on that we should be aware of for 3Q? Thanks so much.

[Greg Greifeld, CIO at Runway Growth Finance]

Thanks, Melissa. That's a great question. So I think as we look ahead into Q3, we believe we've got line of sight into slightly elevated level of repayments in Q3 that will benefit NII for the quarter. Now that benefit next quarter will offset a portion of that, if not all the negative recurring impact of the increased interest expense, the increase in weighted average cost of debt from those April 28 notes. Now in subsequent quarters, we'll work to continue to originate additional opportunities and replace those anticipated repayments.

[Greg Greifeld, CIO at Runway Growth Finance]

Now that could cause NII to come down in the near term in fourth quarter. And so if you link that back to what we talked about in Q1 and our dividend policy and the planning that we went through around optimizing the book and perspective interest rate changes. That's really one of the reasons why we reset that dividend to the $0.33 base and how we did support to determine that base. I think the important thing is we understand and value the importance of delivering consistency earnings and letting you know where we think they're going to be. And we're working hard to replace those assets that we see coming off the books, and we've got a great capital allocation plan in place, and it's going to cover our base dividend.

[Melissa Wedel, VP - U.S. Equities Research at JP Morgan]

Very helpful. Thank you.

[Operator]

And our next question will come from Casey Alexander with Compass Point Research. Your line is open.

[Casey Alexander, Analyst at Compass Point Research & Trading LLC]

Yes. First of all, I'd like to state how much I'm sure shareholders appreciate the depth of the share repurchase program. That was great to see. I know you guys got locked out of the market in the first quarter. In reference to the new originations, were any particularly to the new two new portfolio companies were either of those larger deals that you shared with the BC platform or did you take all of those?

[Casey Alexander, Analyst at Compass Point Research & Trading LLC]

Because I know the part of the intent of the merging with the BC platform was the ability to do larger loans and cut them up.

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

Yes. Thanks, Casey. So the two deals that we announced that were done last quarter, Auto Books and Swing, those were done exclusively in the BDC. However, the two deals that we announced as subsequent events were portions of larger deals run by BC. So to your point, we're actively keyed into BC's pipeline.

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

We are keenly aware of what does and doesn't fit the mandate of the ROA vehicle and we're going to make sure that we get the appropriate allocations of those deals that do fit as you've seen with these two appropriately sized slugs of deals that happened at subsequent events.

[Casey Alexander, Analyst at Compass Point Research & Trading LLC]

Okay, great. Thanks. That's my only question. Thank you.

[Operator]

And our next question will come from Mickey Schleien with Clear Street. Your line is open.

[Mickey Schleien, MD - Equity Research at Clear Street]

Yes, good afternoon, everyone. When I look at Page seven of the presentation, it looks like first half deal flow this year implies a very strong year if we were just to annualize it. But in your prepared remarks, you sounded pretty cautious. Could you help reconcile that for us?

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

Yes, I think that we in general feel that the environment is a bit of a mixed bag. There's definitely a good amount of flow out there, but we've been very consistent over the last few quarters, if not years, that we're going to highlight quality more than anything else. So as you've seen with the four deals that we talked about here, two of which were, as Casey asked, direct deals and then two were part of the broader platform. I think another point too, just to get everyone on the same page is diversification of is a big theme in terms of our investment outlook and thesis for the next couple of quarters. So a deal like Swing definitely on the smaller size relative to the overall portfolio.

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

But as I said in the prepared remarks, a big reason that we like it is, it's an additional name at a bit of a smaller bite size today, so helps get us to diversification. But also $8,000,000 funded of a $20,000,000 overall facility, it allows us to grow our exposure as the company grows and make sure that we have the right loan to the company at the right point in its growth cycle.

[Mickey Schleien, MD - Equity Research at Clear Street]

If I could follow-up, is AI also skewing the numbers that we're looking at in that PitchBook data in the sense that there might be some very large AI deals in there that make it look stronger than it actually is?

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

Without a doubt, I think that's a big thesis, not only in the venture debt, but the venture equity market. AI is a sector as with everything else that we continue to evaluate. But I would say since we typically play in the latest stage of the venture and growth market, those opportunities might be a couple of years away from being a meaningful part of our book.

[Mickey Schleien, MD - Equity Research at Clear Street]

I understand. That's helpful. My last question relates to the consumer sector. Obviously, the consumer, at least parts of the consumer segment in The U. S.

[Mickey Schleien, MD - Equity Research at Clear Street]

Has been pretty challenged this year. And 20% of your portfolio is in that sector. I think it would be a good time to remind us how do you approach making investments in that sector which help reduce its inherent risk and cyclicality?

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

Yeah, without a doubt. And I'll take a quick second to remind everyone that we really focus on three main sectors, technology broadly, healthcare, as well as consumer. And to your point, as we enter and exit different macro environments, we're going to see the allocation between those three sectors shift. This is a market where we're probably focused less on consumer relative to the other two legs of that stool. But I also would like to take a moment to remind everyone that we do like consumer, but the companies that we target are much bigger in terms of scale.

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

We're talking $100,000,000 plus revenue businesses, real proven track record of why they have a reason to exist as well as much less tolerance for burn or path to profitability than we might see in technology. So I think that's while we say we have the three sectors, as you highlighted, consumers about 20% of the book today. I would say that in this market, it's not a sector that we're trying to expand our position in, But that's today and tomorrow could be a different situation.

[Mickey Schleien, MD - Equity Research at Clear Street]

I understand. That's helpful as well. I appreciate your time this afternoon.

[Operator]

And the next question will come from Eric Zwick with Lucid Capital Markets. Your line is open.

[Erik Zwick, MD - Equity Research at Lucid Capital Markets LLC]

Thanks. Good afternoon, everyone. Can you just provide an update on the CADMA JV, if there's been any new developments there in the last three months or so?

[Greg Greifeld, CIO at Runway Growth Finance]

Yeah, the Cabinet JV is in place. Is ramping up. We expect to see additional transactions in it between now and the end of the year. It's a good relationship and one that each of us value. At the same time, we've been certainly judicious in our underwriting approach and so that reduces the opportunities that would potentially go in into the JV, but it will probably be a few additional quarters before we start seeing the benefits from an ROE perspective of that JV.

[Erik Zwick, MD - Equity Research at Lucid Capital Markets LLC]

Thanks. And with regard to the new products that you're offering now, just curious if you could provide any detail into which ones are receiving positive market reaction or ones that you're have had some originations on so far?

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

Yes, I'd say the short good answer is all of the products that we're rolling out are well received by the market. And we've already done a structured second lien, which could be called a structured equity investment. As I said in the prepared remarks, we've just done a revolver. This is something where I think is really part of the product expansion and benefit for being part of the broader BC Partners platform. It's not necessarily that we can't evaluate these businesses.

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

It's just that we're able to lean on their expertise in structuring and administering these newer types of products. And it definitely is the kind of thing where you have to plant the seeds in order to harvest the hay in coming quarters. So it is a bit of a new, I would say, marketing effort where we're calling the same companies and sponsors that we know and letting them know that our product suite has expanded where now we can do revolvers, we can obviously still do first lien senior secured, we can do second lien, we can do a structured equity, we can do equipment financing. And that's not to say that all of that will be largely placed in the BDC. But it's definitely a virtuous cycle in terms of more points of call on the same relationships and companies and sponsors.

[Erik Zwick, MD - Equity Research at Lucid Capital Markets LLC]

Thanks. And last one for me, just as I've listened to some commentary for some middle market BDCs over the past week, we're hearing that M and A is coming back and starting to see some activity there. Your comments earlier indicated that you're not really expecting an increase here in the venture market here in the 2025. Yes, just kind of curious from your seat, from your perspective, why maybe it's a little bit slower for M and A to pick up here in venture market?

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

Yeah, and I think it's a theme that we've highlighted the past couple of quarters in terms of when you look at what technology, healthcare and just venture backed companies in general have done over the past two or three years, as that venture cycle has slowed down and equity has become less free flowing than it was the couple of years right after COVID, companies really had to survive and cut burn. And with cutting burn, cut growth as well. I think now you are starting to see the green shoots not only in terms of opportunities for their sales teams, but also opportunities in terms of additional capital to fund growth. And with those opportunities, I think you're seeing boards that might have been tired and looking for an exit even as recently as the end of last year, now see a sense of reinvigoration where they think that there's opportunities for these companies to return to growth. And with that return to growth, they see an opportunity for meaningful increase in exit value.

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

So I think that it's actually a bit of a positive for us where we're seeing less M and A, because we're seeing companies look at organic growth, feel confident enough to continue to go it alone plan. And I'd also highlight the IPO market, particularly the success of the Figma IPO. People typically think of IPOs as a source of repayment for us. That's typically not the case. As you look at use of proceeds for an IPO, deleveraging is not typically the best use of inexpensive equity raise for these growth stage businesses.

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

And if anything, similar to what we saw with the SPAC boom, where companies are trying to tie as large of a capital raise as possible together, we do believe that if the IPO window remains open, it's an opportunity for us and other venture lenders to tack on debt raises in combination with those IPOs.

[Erik Zwick, MD - Equity Research at Lucid Capital Markets LLC]

That's great color. Thanks for taking my questions.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Sean Paul Adams with B. Riley Securities. Your line is open.

[Sean-Paul Adams, Equity Research Analyst - BDCs & Specialty Finance at B. Riley Securities]

Hey guys, good afternoon. As a quick follow-up on that last question, it seems that there's been a couple successive quarters of net portfolio contraction at least at cost. And you guys mentioned some elevated repayments post quarter end. Are you looking at the 2026 as the potential time for a turnaround for larger growth targets?

[Greg Greifeld, CIO at Runway Growth Finance]

It will take a little time. I do think our outlook is generally brighter for 2026 than it is for the 2025. Importantly, for us, it's about portfolio optimization right now. And that means rightsizing the bite size for the BDC. It means introducing new products, diversifying with products and it means using our dry powder, which we're comfortable with the amount of dry powder we have judiciously.

[Greg Greifeld, CIO at Runway Growth Finance]

So do we expect the pipeline will increase over the next several quarters? Yes, it typically increases in fourth quarter and then you tend to have some cleanup in first quarter and then it builds back into second quarter and then soft third quarter and then another strong. But we do expect the benefit to see the benefits of that portfolio optimization and the benefits of what we're doing on the origination side in terms of bringing additional growth into the portfolio. I mean, we're quite comfortable with where we're at now. We have the ability to cover our base dividend.

[Greg Greifeld, CIO at Runway Growth Finance]

We have good core earnings. So we don't feel pressured to return to growth in what could be deemed too quick or too reckless of a manner or to jump in too soon.

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

Yeah, and I'll just add to that really quick. I do want to underscore that we're definitely comfortable where we are and with the pipeline. And I think to say optimization slightly differently in terms of diversification, We have had a couple of loans that are $70,000,000 plus. And as we think about diversification, as those do roll off, we're not going to replace them with other positions of that same size. So there could be a couple of quarter lag in terms of replacing one $75,000,000 loan with three loans.

[Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO at Runway Growth Finance]

But to echo Tom's point, we're very comfortable where we are. We think that we're in a good place in terms of coverage of the dividend. And just really the theme and I hope a key takeaway is that we're trying to optimize and diversify the portfolio.

[Sean-Paul Adams, Equity Research Analyst - BDCs & Specialty Finance at B. Riley Securities]

Understood. Thank you for the clarity. I appreciate it.

[Operator]

I show no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to David Spring for closing remarks.

[David Spreng, Founder, Chairman & CEO at Runway Growth Finance]

Thank you, operator. Our management team is excited to meet with investors in the coming weeks, and we encourage you to reach out to our Investor Relations team if you're interested in connecting. We look forward to updating you on our strategic progress during our third quarter twenty twenty five earnings call in November.

[Operator]

This concludes today's conference call and thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Quinlan Abel, Assistant Vice President of Investor Relations
• David Spreng, Founder, Chairman & CEO
• Greg Greifeld, CIO
• Thomas Raterman, CFO & COO

Analysts

• Cory Johnson, Associate Analyst at UBS Securities LLC
• Melissa Wedel, VP - U.S. Equities Research at JP Morgan
• Casey Alexander, Analyst at Compass Point Research & Trading LLC
• Mickey Schleien, MD - Equity Research at Clear Street
• Erik Zwick, MD - Equity Research at Lucid Capital Markets LLC
• Sean-Paul Adams, Equity Research Analyst - BDCs & Specialty Finance at B. Riley Securities