Financing for a company in the grown-up phase

You can borrow money from a bank or investment fund in the form of a business loan. This loan and the interest charged on it must be repaid.

The Rabo Impact Loan is a special loan from Rabobank intended for impact businesses, offering interest rate discounts to companies and organisations doing business with a sustainable or social impact. Especially for sustainable frontrunners and entrepreneurs in the healthcare and education sectors.

The BNG Sustainability Fund offers business financing that positively contributes to sustainability in the interests of the environment and people. With a loan from the BNG Sustainability Fund, you as an entrepreneur, business initiator, or association can invest in sports, green energy, the circular economy, mobility, or a rich living environment.

FMO is the Dutch development bank for entrepreneurs operating abroad. Their mission is to empower entrepreneurs to increase inclusive and sustainable prosperity. They invest in agribusiness, food, water, energy, and finance, among others.

Private equity refers to investors financing companies outside the stock market.

Private equity parties, also called private equity firms, usually take a majority stake in a company (51% of the shares or more). They become owners of a company, intending to grow the business and sell it at a profit after 5 to 7 years.

The difference with venture capital? Private equity focuses on existing companies that need a capital injection to grow. In contrast, venture capital focuses on start-up companies.

Examples of private equity parties are:

Another option for raising finance is to go public with the company. The first time that shares are offered on the Stock Exchange is called an initial public offering (IPO). By doing this, the company owners give some of their control to new shareholders.

A successful IPO can attract a lot of capital. It also provides name recognition and makes the company attractive to investors, as it becomes relatively easy to trade shares.

As a listed company, you have to comply with certain laws and regulations, for example, the disclosure of your profit figures.

Taking your company public may sound unattainable. Yet there are stock exchanges specifically for SME entrepreneurs, such as NPEX, for example. Here, you can raise money directly from investors, without the intervention of a bank or other parties. (Source: kvk.nl)

An impact bond, also known as a social impact bond (SIB), involves using private money to solve social issues. It is often a performance-based contract between, for example, a government, non-profit organisation, social enterprise, or service provider and an investor, to achieve specific social outcomes. Impact bonds are therefore not directly about financial results, but social results.

Although impact bonds are still relatively new, they have gained popularity as a way to align financial incentives with social outcomes and leverage private sector resources for the public good. They are used in various sectors, including education, healthcare, criminal justice, and environmental conservation.

Factoring is a financial service in which a company sells its outstanding invoices to a factoring company. In return, the company immediately receives a percentage of the invoice amount as liquidity, while the factoring company becomes responsible for collecting payments from customers.

This quick access to money improves the company’s cash flow and thus provides immediate working capital. Once customers pay their invoices, the company receives the remaining amount minus factoring fees. Factoring offers companies financial flexibility and risk management, but the costs have to be carefully weighed against the benefits.

Examples of companies offering factoring are Voldaan and SVEA.