Financing · Debt & structured instruments
Looking to raise business finance for your company or your projects? Collaboration Capital gives you access to an international club of investors and lenders — banks, equity and debt funds, family offices, institutional investors — for deals of EUR 1–100 million. Cash flow, receivables, capex, real estate, renewable energy, acquisitions: we cover every need, in equity as well as debt, directly or through an SPV. Our model is simple: no fixed fees, no exclusivity, and a fee paid only on success.
01 · Execution
Raising finance is not an event, it is a process — and every poorly prepared stage costs you at the next one. A poorly qualified need leads to the wrong instrument; the wrong instrument leads to the wrong funders; an incomplete file prolongs the questions; badly negotiated security weighs on you for years. Here is the full sequence of our work.
Review of the last three financial years, adjustment of the key aggregates, calculation of normalised working capital and of the ratios funders will examine. The deliverable: a need that is quantified, dated and tied to its real cause — detailed further down this page.
Each family of needs calls for its own instruments: receivables finance, short-term credit, SPV project finance, fiducie (French security trust), acquisition debt, leasing. The choice is made on all-in cost, security required and contractual flexibility.
Building a shortlist of funders whose credit policy, ticket sizes and sectors match the chosen instrument and the company's profile precisely — banks, factors, debt funds, leasing companies, guarantee bodies.
Three deliverables with distinct purposes: generating interest without exposing the company, demonstrating debt service capacity, and documenting every figure put forward. A complete file on first submission cuts response times sharply.
Approaching the selected funders, presenting the file to the right person — corporate relationship manager, credit department, investment team — and organising the first discussions.
Centralising questions from all the funders consulted, preparing answers with your teams, updating the data room. A well-managed Q&A flow keeps the process moving and keeps the information given to each counterparty consistent.
Comparing the offers received on a like-for-like basis, negotiating rates, maturities, covenants and — the longest-lasting point — security: type, scope, ranking and release conditions.
Satisfying conditions precedent, reviewing the finance documents, coordinating legal advisers, signing and drawdown of funds. The timetable for this final phase is prepared as soon as the offer is accepted.
02 · Diagnosis
Most searches for finance that fail do not stumble on the funder — they stumble on the question being asked. Asking for “a loan” when the need comes from customer payment terms means approaching the wrong instrument through the wrong contact, with a file that does not prove the right thing.
Our first job is therefore accounting and financial — the same rigour of method we set out instrument by instrument in our business finance analyses. Working from tax returns, interim accounts and forecasts, we establish:
The exact origin of the need. Operating cycle (working capital), investment, a stand-alone project, an acquisition, or cash-flow pressure — each origin calls for a different family of instruments, and confusing them is costly.
The real amount, not the perceived amount. Normalised working capital in days of revenue, seasonality, cash peaks: the need shown by the bank balance is almost never the need to be financed.
Demonstrable debt service capacity. Operating cash flow and the ratios the banking pool will analyse — net debt / EBITDA leverage, DSCR, gearing — calculated before the funder calculates them.
The adjustments that change the picture. Owner's pay, rent paid to a related property company, non-recurring items, restated leases: presenting adjusted, justified accounts answers the questions before they are asked.
The security available. An inventory of unencumbered assets, receivables that can be financed and existing commitments — this is what defines the structures genuinely within reach.
The principle behind everything else: the term of the financing must match the term of the need. Funding a permanent need with short-term money exposes you to non-renewal; funding a one-off need with long-term debt ties up borrowing capacity for no reason. Qualification exists precisely to avoid these two mistakes.
03 · Types of need
A company's financing needs fall into seven broad families. For each one there are proven instruments — and unsuitable ones you need to rule out. Each family is covered in depth in our downloadable practical guides: factoring, reverse factoring, SPV financing, vendor financing, instant business loans.
Receivables finance turns invoices into immediate cash, without waiting for the due date. It is the most natural way to fund working capital: the facility grows with the business.
Instruments: invoice finance / factoring (disclosed, confidential, off-balance-sheet), Dailly assignment of receivables, bill discounting, backed by credit insurance.
Supplier-side finance lets you capture early-payment discounts or secure a supply chain, with a financial institution carrying the payment term.
Instruments: reverse factoring (supply chain finance), confirmed supplier credit, inventory finance.
Short-term facilities provide day-to-day flexibility. The watch point: they are renewed — or not — at the lender's discretion. They must never carry a structural need.
Instruments: committed credit line, authorised overdraft, seasonal credit facility, instant business loans.
The project sits in a dedicated company (SPV) that carries and ring-fences the debt: lenders are repaid from the project's own cash flows, not from the group's balance sheet.
Instruments: project debt carried by an SPV, senior and junior tranches, reserve accounts, security over the project's assets and contracts.
A fiducie-sûreté temporarily transfers ownership of assets — shares, real estate, business goodwill — to a trustee for the lender's benefit. It is the strongest form of security under French law: it opens the way for turnaround, restructuring or unusual-asset deals.
Instruments: security fiducie (fiducie-sûreté), management fiducie (fiducie-gestion), combined fiducie + structured debt arrangements.
Acquisition debt is carried by an acquisition holding company and repaid from the target's dividends. The structuring — equity contribution, tranches, covenants — determines the price you can offer.
Instruments: LBO, MBO, OBO, mezzanine, unitranche, vendor financing, earn-out.
Asset-backed finance preserves cash and matches repayments to the useful life of the asset. Sale-and-leaseback also lets you release the value of equipment you already own.
Instruments: equipment finance lease (crédit-bail mobilier), operating lease (location financière), amortising equipment loan, sale-and-leaseback.
Some needs exceed the borrowing capacity a company can demonstrate. Bringing in new shareholders or quasi-equity then restores the balance-sheet ratios that make debt accessible again.
Instruments: equity fundraising and opening up the share capital, convertible bonds, structured shareholder loans.
04 · Funders
Every instrument has its natural funders, and every funder has a precise credit policy: minimum and maximum tickets, sectors accepted or excluded, floor ratios, risk appetite. Pitching a reverse factoring deal to a high-street bank, or a unitranche deal to a factor, wastes time — and can damage how the file is perceived in the market, because rejections get around.
Our added value at this stage fits in one sentence: we know who funds what, on what terms and within what timeframes — and for each file we build a shortlist of funders whose policy genuinely matches the need.
Controlled competition. Consulting several compatible funders in parallel — with the same information, at the same time — creates the conditions for comparable offers. It is this parallel approach, not the number of approaches, that improves the terms obtained.
05 · The file
A funder decides on the basis of documents. Three deliverables shape how a financing need is presented, each with its own purpose — and a classic mistake to avoid.
One to two pages, often anonymised: sector, financial orders of magnitude, nature and amount of the need, envisaged structure. Its purpose is to generate qualified interest without exposing the company.
The classic mistake: saying too much. The teaser opens the conversation; it does not close it.
The core document: business and market, accounts for the last three years with justified adjustments, forecasts, detailed need, proposed financing structure, security on offer. This is what demonstrates debt service capacity.
The classic mistake: leaving the funder to make the adjustments — they will make them cautiously, and therefore against you.
The secure document repository — its confidentiality protected by a robust NDA — that backs up every figure put forward: tax returns, trial balances, key contracts, schedule of existing security, legal and employment documents. Having it complete on day one sets the pace of the Q&A.
The classic mistake: building it up as requests come in. Every missing document means another round trip, and every round trip means another delay.
Consistency between the three documents matters as much as their content: a figure in the teaser that does not appear in the memorandum, or a memorandum the data room does not support, is enough to sow doubt. Our document templates and our practical guides set out the structure of each of these deliverables.
06 · Going to market
The same file does not meet the same fate depending on the door it comes in through. We present each need to the person who decides — corporate relationship manager, credit department, a fund's investment team — with a tailored teaser, then the financing memorandum to the funders who confirm their interest. Consultations run in parallel, on a common timetable.
The Q&A phase is where processes get bogged down. We centralise questions from all the funders consulted, prepare the answers with your teams and your chartered accountant, add supporting documents to the data room and keep the information given to each counterparty strictly consistent. The twofold aim: keep up the pace, and make sure an improvised answer to one funder never contradicts what was written to another.
When offers arrive, they are never directly comparable: fixed versus floating rates, different maturities, security of unequal scope. We bring them onto a like-for-like basis, then negotiate point by point:
Financial terms. Rate and margin, arrangement and commitment fees, amortisation profile, grace period, early repayment and its break costs.
Covenants. Ratios to be met — leverage, DSCR, gearing —, testing frequency, headroom and the consequences of a breach: a covenant set too tight turns a temporary setback into an event of default.
Security. Type (pledge, charge over equipment, mortgage, Dailly assignment, personal guarantee, first-demand guarantee, security fiducie), scope, ranking and — a clause too often forgotten — the conditions for release: security should fall away as the risk decreases.
Public guarantee cover. When a guarantee body covers part of the risk, the negotiation also covers how that cover fits with the security the lender requires in its own right — the two should not simply stack up without limit.
Once the offer is accepted, it still has to be turned into funds drawn: satisfying conditions precedent, reviewing the finance documents with your legal advisers, perfecting the security, signing and drawdown. We coordinate this final stretch until the funds are actually paid out — because financing only exists from that date.
07 · Our positioning
We are an independent advisory firm for acquisitions, disposals and financing, based in Marseille and working throughout France and internationally. The firm is registered with ORIAS, the French register of insurance, banking and finance intermediaries, under no. 25000696 as a broker in banking transactions and payment services (IOBSP).
A rare dual skill set. Technical analysis of statutory accounts and command of the instruments — from factoring to fiducie, from leasing to unitranche — in a single team: diagnosis and execution are not separated.
Up-to-date knowledge of funders. Credit policies, tickets, sectors, timeframes: we know who is funding what right now, not two years ago.
No exclusivity required, no fixed fees. You remain free to consult other advisers and to withdraw the file at any time.
Structural independence. No bank or fund among our shareholders: no counterparty to the deal pays us to steer the choice of instrument or funder.
Deals of EUR 1–100 million, from financing an SME's receivables to structured finance for a mid-cap, in equity as well as debt, with an international club of investors and lenders — banks, equity and debt funds, family offices, institutional investors — through a network covering more than 120 countries.
Once the offer is accepted, it still has to be turned into funds drawn: satisfying conditions precedent, reviewing the finance documents with your legal advisers, perfecting the security, signing and drawdown. We coordinate this final stretch until the funds are actually paid out — because financing only exists from that date.
08 · Resources
Funding your cash flow by selling your customer invoices: how it works, costs and practical use cases.
Financing your suppliers and securing your supply chain without increasing your working capital needs.
Setting up an SPV to finance an acquisition or a project while ring-fencing the risk: structure, benefits, legal framework.
How it works, benefits, risks and best practice for structuring secure acquisition finance.
Comparing fast credit solutions and understanding their eligibility criteria, rates and pitfalls.
The confidentiality agreement template that genuinely protects your data — essential before opening a data room.
Our practical business finance guides distil the method, checklists and mistakes to avoid for each instrument into a few pages. Our articles and analyses explore technical topics in depth, case by case. Everything is freely available.
Is your financing need part of an acquisition project? Our company acquisition page covers the subject end to end, from sourcing targets to completion.
09 · Frequently asked questions
A business sale follows seven stages: preparing and tidying up the company, valuation and building a price range, drafting the anonymous teaser and the information memorandum, targeting and approaching buyers, receiving and analysing letters of intent, buyer due diligence, then negotiating the legal documentation and completion. Success depends less on finding one buyer than on bringing several together at the same time.
It is the analysis that establishes the exact origin of the need — operating cycle, investment, project, acquisition or restructuring —, its real amount based on the statutory accounts (normalised working capital, operating cash flow, debt ratios) and its time horizon. It determines the right instrument and the type of funder to approach, before any contact is made.
Three deliverables shape the presentation: an anonymised teaser for first contact, a financing memorandum setting out the company, the need, the adjusted accounts and the proposed structure, and a data room holding the supporting documents — annual accounts, tax returns, forecasts, key contracts, schedule of existing security. The quality and consistency of these documents drive how quickly funders respond.
Each instrument has its natural funders: factors for receivables, specialist institutions for reverse factoring, banks for working capital facilities and leasing, private debt funds for mezzanine and unitranche, and mixed pools for acquisition finance. Approaching a funder outside its field wastes time and can damage how the file is perceived in the market.
Observed timeframes vary widely by instrument: a few weeks for a factoring line or a standard lease, two to four months for structured credit or acquisition finance, longer for SPV project finance or a fiducie. The factor that weighs most on the timetable is the quality of the file submitted first time round: a complete file reduces back-and-forth questions.
A fiducie is a French-law mechanism through which a company temporarily transfers ownership of assets to a trustee, for the benefit of a creditor (security fiducie, fiducie-sûreté) or for a management mandate (management fiducie, fiducie-gestion). In financing, a security fiducie gives the lender particularly robust first-ranking security, which can unlock deals that conventional security is not enough to secure — turnaround situations, strategic assets, unusual financings.
Depending on the instrument: a pledge over shares or business goodwill, a mortgage, a charge over equipment, Dailly assignment of receivables, a personal guarantee from the owner, a first-demand guarantee, a security fiducie, or a public counter-guarantee covering a share of the risk. The negotiation covers the type and scope of the security as much as its release: security should fall away as the risk decreases.
No, it is not a requirement. We do not impose any exclusivity: you remain free to consult other advisers and to withdraw the file at any time. The firm is registered with ORIAS (the French register of insurance, banking and finance intermediaries) under no. 25000696 as a broker in banking transactions and payment services (IOBSP).
The orders of magnitude on this page reflect practices observed in the market and our own deals. They do not constitute personalised advice, nor any commitment as to the terms, amounts or timeframes for obtaining finance. Each case is assessed on its own merits.
A confidential 30-minute first conversation with a partner to scope your need, identify the possible instruments and the funders to approach — with no commitment.
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Confidentiality guaranteed — NDA on request
IOBSP broker registered with ORIAS under no. 25000696