Runway Growth Finance Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 7, 2025

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.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Runway Growth Finance Q2 2025
00:00 / 00:00

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Speaker 6

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Runway Growth Finance second quarter 2025 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.

Speaker 7

Thank you, Alfred. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Runway Growth Finance conference call for the quarter ended June 30, 2025. Joining us on the call today from Runway Growth Finance are David Spreng, Chief Executive Officer; Greg Greifeld, Chief Investment Officer of Runway Growth Capital LLC, our investment advisor; and Thomas Raterman, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Runway Growth Finance's second quarter 2025 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. 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.

Speaker 7

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 uncertainty 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. 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.

Speaker 7

With that, I will turn the call over to David.

Speaker 5

Thank you, Quinlan, and thanks everyone for joining us this evening to discuss our second quarter 2025 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. 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 Growth Finance delivered total investment income of $35.1 million and net investment income of $13.9 million. The second quarter posed economic uncertainty due to evolving tariff policy and the potential knock-on effect to our portfolio companies. Overall, the BDC sector proved resilient, and we believe our portfolio has demonstrated its ability to perform throughout all economic cycles.

Speaker 5

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 Credit Platform, Runway Growth Finance 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 million and $150 million overall. 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.

Speaker 5

We believe our sweet spot is a check size between $20 million and $45 million 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; 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 billion credit platform. Our second quarter investment activity demonstrates our ability to execute against our portfolio optimization initiatives while continuing to maximize our existing portfolio.

Speaker 5

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 $37.8 million in funded loans. We completed a $40 million commitment in Autobooks, an accounting and bookkeeping solution, funding $27 million at close. During the quarter, we also completed a new $20 million commitment in Swing Education, an online marketplace that connects schools with qualified substitute teachers, funding $8 million at close. $10 million 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 $2.8 million commitment in our existing portfolio company, Marley Spoon. Subsequent to quarter end, we announced a new $10 million co-investment with BC Partners in Federal Hearings and Appeals Services, or FHAS, funding $7.5 million at close.

Speaker 5

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 million investment in DigiCert Inc., funding $9.2 million 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.

Speaker 1

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 second quarter of 2025, Runway Growth Finance completed two investments in new portfolio companies and one investment in an existing portfolio company, representing $37.8 million in funded loans. I want to take a moment to highlight our investment in Swing Education, which David touched on earlier. We are providing a $20 million senior-secured loan to the company, $10 million of which is a revolving line of credit, marking our first of such arrangements. This opportunity is significant for a few reasons. First, Swing Education 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 lifecycle.

Speaker 1

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 Education that allow us to flex our newly added platform scale and growing solution set. 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 2025, consistent with the first quarter of 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.

Speaker 1

We found that our dollar-weighted loan-to-value ratio increased slightly from 29.0% to 29.8%. Our total investment portfolio had a fair value of $1.02 billion, an increase of 2.1% from $1 billion in the first quarter of 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. Turning now to our outlook on the market. As we discussed on our first quarter 2025 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.

Speaker 1

Despite some encouraging signs of life in the IPO market, we do not expect a significant increase in M&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&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. 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.

Speaker 1

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 64% and 36% of the first half of 2025 deal value and count, respectively. 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.

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 5

Thanks, Greg, and good evening, everyone. We generated total investment income of $35.1 million and net investment income of $13.9 million in the second quarter of 2025, a decrease compared to $35.4 million and $15.6 million in the first quarter of 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 second quarter of 2025, holding flat quarter over quarter and increasing from 15.1% for the comparable period last year.

Speaker 5

Moving to our expenses, total operating expenses were $21.2 million for the second quarter of 2025, an increase from $19.8 million for the first quarter of 2025. We recorded a net realized loss on investments of $1.5 million in the second quarter of 2025, compared to a net realized gain on investments of $6.1 million in the first quarter of 2025. During the second quarter, we experienced one prepayment totaling $25 million and scheduled amortization of $4.2 million. As of June 30, 2025, we had only one loan on non-accrual status to Mingle Healthcare. This loan has a cost basis of $4.8 million and a fair market value of $2.4 million, or 50% of cost, representing just 0.2% of the total investment portfolio at fair value as of June 30, 2025. We'd like to recognize that Mingle is making cash interest payments on its loan.

Speaker 5

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 lifecycle, will enable us to achieve beneficial outcomes for all parties involved. As of June 30, 2025, Runway Growth Finance had net assets of $498.9 million, decreasing from $503.3 million at the end of the first quarter of 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 first quarter of 2025. At the end of the second quarter of 2025, our leverage ratio and asset coverage were 1.05 and 1.95 times, respectively, compared to 0.99 and 2.01 times, respectively, at the end of the first quarter of 2025.

Speaker 5

As of June 30, 2025, our total available liquidity was $297 million, including unrestricted cash and cash equivalents, and we had a borrowing capacity of $291 million. 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 advisor. 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 million to $132 million. As of June 30, 2025, we had a total of $164.9 million in unfunded commitments, which was comprised of $135.5 million to provide debt financing to our portfolio companies and $29.4 million to provide equity financing to our JV with CADMA.

Speaker 5

Approximately $35.7 million 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 May 7, 2025, our Board of Directors approved a new stock repurchase program of $25 million, which will expire on May 7, 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. Finally, on August 6, 2025, our Board of Directors declared total distributions for the third quarter of $0.36 per share, comprised of a $0.33 regular dividend and a $0.03 supplemental dividend. We continue to believe Runway Growth Finance presents a great opportunity for prospective investors that are seeking exposure to a high-quality venture and growth lending portfolio with attractive yield characteristics.

Speaker 5

Management has a deep conviction that Runway Growth Finance 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.

Speaker 6

Thank you. To ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If your question has been answered, to withdraw, you would please press star 11 again. The first question will come from Douglas Harter with UBS. Your line is open.

Speaker 6

All right, thank you. This is actually Cory Johnson on for Doug. I had a question. Non-accruals have been pretty, they're very low. I noticed that I guess PIK, as a % 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 forced PIK versus perhaps just companies using that optionality. I think earlier you mentioned that companies are sort of preparing for possible downturn or difficult situations. I just wanted to see how much of that might be just related to optionality versus being forced into PIK.

Speaker 1

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

Speaker 3

Yeah, I would add to that, to really echo what Tom said, it's something that we, you know, folks typically think of it from a defensive perspective in terms of supporting your portfolio. As we look not only in terms of keeping deals in our portfolio, but also the 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.

Speaker 3

Great, thanks. Just one final question. Just in regards to the share repurchase, I'm just wondering, like, you know, how do you think that your repurchase program might play out from here 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?

Speaker 5

When we establish the execution plan for the share repurchase program, we do it through a 10b5-1, and we set up a rubric that's based on where the stock trades as a % of NAV. We really don't obviously disclose those marks. 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 that discount diminishes.

Speaker 5

Great, thank you.

Speaker 6

The next question will come from Melissa Wedel with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Speaker 4

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 the 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?

Speaker 5

Thanks for the question, Melissa, and it's a good one. In the quarter itself, in Q2, we had about $0.04 a share that was related to increased interest expense. About $0.015 of that $0.04 was one-time costs associated with the acceleration of the deferred financing costs on the existing secured notes. About $0.02 is really an ongoing increase to interest expense related to taking out 4.25% notes with 7-plus % notes.

Speaker 4

Okay, great. That's very helpful. I wanted to also go back to your comment about, I believe it was $35 million 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 million might you expect to be drawn down and how quickly might that happen?

Speaker 5

It obviously depends on the economic environment, but the performance of the companies is 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. It does somewhat reduce the chance that it'll be drawn, but I would say historically, it's probably about 50/50. We've looked at the amount of unused commitments that expire without use, and it's a pretty significant number. It's over 50%.

Speaker 3

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, you know, we feel good about it. The number of companies that are eligible to draw based on the milestones is a good percentage.

Speaker 4

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

Speaker 5

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

Speaker 5

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 prospective interest rate changes, that's really one of the reasons why we reset that dividend to the $0.33 base and how we did the support to determine that base. I think the important thing is we understand and value the importance of delivering consistency of earnings and letting you know where we think they're going to be. 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.

Speaker 4

Very helpful. Thank you.

Speaker 6

Our next question will come from Casey Alexander with Compass Point Research & Trading. Your line is open.

Operator

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 two new portfolio companies, were either of those larger deals that you shared with the BC Partners Credit Platform, or did you take all of those? I know that part of the intent of merging with the BC Partners Credit Platform was the ability to do larger loans and cut them up.

Speaker 3

Yeah, thanks, Casey. The two deals that we announced that were done last quarter, Autobooks and Swing Education, were done exclusively in the BDC. However, the two deals that we announced as subsequent events were portions of larger deals run by BC Partners. To your point, we're actively keyed into BC Partners' pipeline. We are keenly aware of what does and doesn't fit the mandate of the Runway 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 as subsequent events.

Operator

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

Speaker 6

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

Speaker 2

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. In your prepared remarks, you sounded pretty cautious. Could you help reconcile that for us?

Speaker 3

Yeah, 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. 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 BC Partners Credit Platform. I think another point, just to get everyone on the same page, is diversification is a big theme in terms of our investment outlook and thesis for the next couple of quarters. A deal like Swing Education, definitely on the smaller size relative to the overall portfolio.

Speaker 3

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 it helps get us to diversification. Also, $8 million funded of a $20 million overall facility 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 points in its growth cycle.

Speaker 2

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?

Speaker 3

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. 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.

Speaker 2

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

Speaker 3

Yeah, without a doubt. I'll take a quick second to remind everyone that we really focus on three main sectors: technology broadly, healthcare, as well as consumer. 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. 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. We're talking $100 million 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.

Speaker 3

I think that's, while we say we have the three sectors, as you highlighted, consumer is 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. That's today, and tomorrow could be a different situation.

Speaker 2

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

Speaker 6

The next question will come from Erik Zwick with Lucid Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Speaker 6

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?

Speaker 5

Yeah, the CADMA JV is in place. It 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 that reduces the opportunities that would potentially go into the JV. It will probably be a few additional quarters before we start seeing the benefits from an ROE perspective of that JV.

Speaker 5

Thanks. 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 the ones that you have had some originations on so far.

Speaker 3

I'd say the short good answer is all of the products that we're rolling out are well received by the market. 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. It's just that we're able to lean on their expertise in structuring and administering these newer types of products. It definitely is the kind of thing where you have to plant the seeds in order to harvest the hay in coming quarters.

Speaker 3

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. That's not to say that all of that will be largely placed in the BDC. It's definitely a virtuous cycle in terms of more points of call on the same relationships and companies and sponsors.

Speaker 3

Thanks. 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&A is coming back and, you know, 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 second half of 2025. I'm just kind of curious from your seat, from your perspective, you know, why maybe it's a little bit slower for M&A to pick up here in the venture market.

Speaker 3

Yeah, 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. With cutting burn, they cut growth as well. I think now you're 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.

Speaker 3

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. With that return to growth, they see an opportunity for meaningful increase in exit value. I think that it's actually a bit of a positive for us where we're seeing less M&A because we're seeing companies look at organic growth, feel confident enough to continue the go-it-alone plan. 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.

Speaker 3

As you look at use of proceeds for an IPO, deleveraging is not typically the best use of an expensive equity raise for these growth stage businesses. 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.

Speaker 3

That's great, Quinlan. Thanks for taking my questions.

Speaker 6

As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1 1 on your telephone. The next question comes from Sean-Paul Adams with B. Riley Securities. Your line is open.

Speaker 6

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

Speaker 5

It will take a little time. I do think our outlook is generally brighter for 2026 than it is for the second half of 2025. Importantly, for us, it's about portfolio optimization right now. That means right-sizing 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. Do we expect the pipeline will increase over the next several quarters? Yes, it typically increases in the fourth quarter, and then you tend to have some cleanup in the first quarter, and then it builds back into the second quarter, a soft third quarter, and then another strong. We do expect 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.

Speaker 5

We're quite comfortable with where we're at now. We have the ability to cover our base dividend. We have good core earnings. 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.

Speaker 3

Yeah, 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. I think to say optimization slightly differently in terms of diversification, we have had a couple of loans that are $70 million plus. As we think about diversification, as those do roll off, we're not going to replace them with other positions of that same size. There could be a couple of quarter lag in terms of replacing one $75 million loan with three loans. To echo Tom Raterman'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. The theme, and I hope a key takeaway, is that we're trying to optimize and diversify the portfolio.

Speaker 3

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

Speaker 6

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

Speaker 5

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 2025 earnings call in November.

Speaker 6

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

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