Venture Debt Drawn
Definition
Principal currently drawn from venture debt facilities (e.g. Silicon Valley Bank, Hercules Capital, Trinity Capital, Western Alliance, Bridge Bank facilities). Venture debt typically extends runway 6–12 months alongside the equity round — used well, it dilution-efficiently bridges to the next equity event; used poorly, it concentrates default risk into a single covenant covenant trip. Common pitfall: drawn debt creates interest expense and a repayment schedule that compresses runway in 18–24 months even though it extends runway today (per the Battery Ventures venture-debt primer and the Bessemer "venture debt playbook" series).
Why it matters
Drawn debt accelerates cash burn through interest plus principal amortization (typically 24–36 month amortization after a 6–18 month interest-only period). Misjudging the trade-off between dilution avoided and forced repayment is a common venture-backed startup failure mode.
How it's calculated
Sum of principal drawn (and not yet repaid) across all active venture debt facilities. Distinct from `venture_debt_available` (undrawn capacity). Servicing cost = drawn × (rate + fees) — reduces runway. How to interpret it
Drawn debt above ~30% of unrestricted cash starts to dominate the runway forecast and the covenant exposure. Pair with `venture_debt_covenant_status` and the next-round timeline — if the next equity event is uncertain past the amortization start date, the board should be in active conversation about refinancing.
Source
imboard Editorial
Stage relevance
Typically owned by
Related KPIs
Undrawn capacity remaining on existing venture debt facilities. Optionality the company can call on quickly without re-pricing. Common pitfall: availability is conditional — most facilities require continued covenant compliance, and an available line can be pulled or frozen by the lender if cash, ARR, or other covenants slip (per the Bessemer venture-debt content and Battery Ventures primer). The board should treat `venture_debt_available` as a soft commitment, not a hard one, until drawn.
Stoplight state of the venture-debt facility covenants — typically minimum-cash, minimum-ARR or revenue, maximum-burn, customer-concentration, and material-adverse-change clauses (per the standard Bessemer / Battery Ventures venture-debt primers). A covenant trip can freeze the draw line, accelerate repayment, or both. Common pitfall: covenants are not always actively monitored between board meetings — drift between an internal forecast and a covenant threshold can cross the line silently. Boards should require monthly covenant headroom reporting when material debt is drawn.
Sum of all bank account balances at the reporting cut-off, expressed in a single reporting currency after FX conversion. This is the gross top-of-house cash number — it does not net out restrictions, near-term liabilities, or commitments. The board reads this as the absolute denominator for runway and as a checksum against the cap table (capital raised − cumulative net burn ≈ cash). Common pitfall: founders sometimes report a USD figure that silently includes ILS/EUR accounts at stale FX rates — always reconcile against the bank-accounts list (per FX-aware MultiCurrencyAccountList) and tag the rate date.
Estimated number of months the company can operate at the current net burn before unrestricted cash reaches zero, holding everything else constant. The single most consequential survival input for venture-backed companies — it sets the urgency of every fundraising, hiring, and cost decision. Common pitfall: runway is often quoted off `finance.total_cash_in_bank` and a single-month spot-burn instead of operationally-available cash and a 3-month-trailing burn — the result is a runway that looks 2–4 months longer than it actually is when working capital tightens. Boards should ask which cash and which burn went into the calculation.
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