Practice 02
Corporate finance
You are raising equity, taking on debt or restructuring what you have, and the terms have to be ones the business can live with. We build the model, run the process and write the documents, and we stay for the board and the reporting that follow. Deep relationships across private equity and private capital mean we originate as well as advise.
This is the practice for
- the founder raising for the first time, or the third
- the business taking on debt, or refinancing what it has
- the board deciding what to fund, and with whose money
In this practice
Equity fundraising
The pitch materials, the list of investors to approach, and negotiating terms that hold up in the next round.
Debt and refinancing
Bank, fund and asset-based facilities, covenant review and security packages, including invoice finance arranged through ON Invoice Finance, the ON Group's invoice finance business.
Investor relationships
Established relationships across private equity, private capital and family offices, drawn on wherever a fundraising mandate needs them.
Capital structuring
What to fund, with whose money, and what that money costs beyond its rate.
Four kinds of money
What each pound costs, beyond its rate.
| Source | Equity | Debt | Asset-based | Grant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it costs | A share of everything the business becomes | Interest, covenants and security over the assets | A margin on each invoice, and a facility to administer | No equity; the reporting, and the match funding |
| Who has a say afterwards | A new shareholder, with consent rights that outlast the round | A lender, the day a covenant slips | Nobody new, while the debtor book performs | The funder, on how the money is spent |
| What has to exist first | A story, a model and a valuation you can defend line by line | Cash flow that services it in the bad months, not only in the plan | A debtor book, and the systems to report on it weekly | A project that fits the call, and the months it takes to apply |
Which of these fits depends on what the money is for, which is the first thing we ask.
Before you start
What we would tell you before you raise.
Decide what the money is for before you decide where it comes from.
A working-capital gap, a site, an acquisition and a runway are four different problems, and three of them have a cheaper answer than equity. The source follows the use. A raise that starts from the source pays the most expensive money for the least demanding need.
The story, the model and the list, in that order.
Investors read the model to check the story, and the list decides who reads it at all. A raise that goes out before the three agree uses up its best introductions on the wrong version, and there is rarely a second chance.
Terms outlast the round.
A liquidation preference, an anti-dilution clause or a consent right agreed in a hurry is still there at the sale, years later, deciding who gets paid first. We negotiate the terms that survive the next round, not only the headline valuation.
We originate as well as advise.
Relationships across private equity, private capital and family offices are drawn on wherever a mandate needs them, so the process opens with conversations rather than a cold list. After the money, the board pack and the reporting are part of the same work, and we stay for them.
Work in this practice
Also in this practice
- FundraiseHospitalityExperiential London hospitality groupFundraising advisory, investor introductions and execution.
- FundraiseSport and leisureHigh-end padel platformFundraising advisory and investor process for a growth-stage platform.
- Minority stakeConsumer and fashionStrategic investment by a listed fashion houseActing for the investor: structuring, negotiation and documentation of a strategic minority stake.
Mandates listed are those of the ON Consulting team, including work led at previous firms. Nothing on this page is advice or a recommendation, and past mandates are not an indication of future outcomes.
Who runs it
A partner who has lived it runs your mandate.
Your raise is run by a partner who has done it. We have raised money and been raised from, sat on both sides of a term sheet as founder and as deal executive, and then run the businesses the money went into.
Meet the teamTell us what the money is for.
We will tell you where it should come from, what it will cost beyond its rate, and what has to exist before anyone writes the cheque. The earlier the call, the more we can add. The first conversation costs nothing.