CAPITAL RAISING
Capital raised against a plan you have already committed to.
We raise senior debt through minority equity for lower middle-market and middle-market companies. We work through a domestic and international network of lenders, sponsors, family offices, and sovereign investors. Capital is a means of executing a defined strategy. The structure is sized against what the plan needs and what the business can service, rather than against the largest number a lender will quote.
THE NETWORK
Lenders and investors we already know.
A raise starts with relationships that already exist. After years of transaction work, we know which lenders and sponsors are deploying right now, into which sectors, and on what terms. That knowledge lets a process run against a short list.
The short list matters more to the borrower than to us. A raise taken to fifty investors who were never going to fund it costs management months, and it signals to the market that the company is shopping. The same raise taken to twelve investors who are actively deploying into the sector closes sooner and on better terms.
The network runs domestically and internationally. Our sponsor partners include sovereign wealth funds, private equity firms, and family offices in Europe and emerging markets. A meaningful share of the work is moving capital between those markets and the United States.
WHAT FITS
What this network can raise against.
These are the ranges we screen mandates against. Outside them a process usually fails. It is cheaper to hear that on the first call than to learn it after four months of outreach.
Platform acquisitions
Companies with EBITDA between $500K and $25M.
Late-stage venture
Series B, C, and D companies raising growth capital.
Industry
The investor network covers all industries and funds both mature and growing businesses. The constraint is usually predictable cash flow rather than sector.
Turnarounds and growth capital
Including situations where conventional lending has tightened, which is when EB-5 is worth examining.
DEBT
Structured to fund the plan and preserve flexibility.
Debt is sized against what the business can service through a downturn, not against what it can borrow at the top of a cycle. The terms that matter are usually the covenant package and the amortization profile rather than the headline rate. Those are the terms that constrain the company in year three, when actual results differ from the plan.
Senior and unitranche debt
Bank and private credit facilities for acquisitions, refinancings, and working capital, sized against what the business can service rather than against what it can borrow at the top of a cycle.
Subordinated and mezzanine capital
Second-lien and mezzanine structures that extend capacity without giving up control, used where senior capacity is exhausted and equity is the expensive alternative.
GROWTH EQUITY
The terms that come with minority equity.
Growth equity is a minority investment, generally between 10 and 40 percent, taken by sponsors who fund scale without taking control. The capital is the visible part of the transaction. The terms attached to it decide what happens when the company performs ahead of or behind the plan.
We model those terms before anyone signs, because they are far easier to negotiate while the investor is competing for the allocation than after exclusivity. An owner should know what each one does in the good case and in the poor case, in the company's own numbers.
Preferred stock and liquidation preference
Where the new money ranks on an exit and what it takes off the top before common holders participate. At a modest exit the preference decides most of the outcome.
Board composition and reserved matters
Who sits on the board, who appoints them, and which decisions the investor can block regardless of ownership percentage.
Protective provisions
The list of actions requiring investor consent, including further raises, acquisitions, budget approval, and senior hires. A minority stake with a long consent list gives the investor effective control.
Conversion, anti-dilution, and follow-on rights
What happens to the investor's position in a later round, and what it costs existing holders if that round prices lower than this one.
RECAPITALIZATION
A majority recapitalization pays the owner at close and again at a later sale.
A majority recapitalization sells control while the owner keeps a minority stake in the new structure. It suits an owner who wants meaningful liquidity now. The owner should also believe the business is worth materially more in five years with a sponsor's capital and a professionalized operating model behind it.
The rollover terms decide the outcome of a recapitalization. The main terms are what the retained stake ranks behind, whether it rolls at the same valuation the buyer paid, and what governance comes with it. Those terms determine whether the owner's second payout, at the sponsor's exit, is worth more than the first. We model the rollover against the sponsor's own exit case rather than against the marketing version of it.
Majority recap mechanics
How the transaction is structured, what the owner sells, what is retained, and how much leverage the new structure takes on for the hold.
Rollover economics
Whether the retained stake rolls at the buyer's entry valuation, what it sits behind in the capital structure, and what it is worth on the sponsor's own base case.
Governance after close
Board seats, reserved matters, the operating cadence a sponsor expects, and what changes about how the owner runs the business the day after closing.
The second payout
What the retained stake returns on the sponsor's exit, and what has to be true about growth and multiple for that outcome to hold.
ALTERNATIVE FINANCING
When EB-5 financing suits a project.
EB-5 is the United States immigrant investor program. Foreign investors put capital into a new commercial enterprise, that enterprise invests it into the US company or project, and each investor's immigration benefit depends on the project creating and holding the jobs the program requires. For a company, that makes it capital priced differently from bank debt, with a longer setup and a reporting obligation that runs for years after the capital is received.
Crescent Capital Advisors serves as the conduit between project developers and EB-5 investors, and handles the regulatory and reporting work the program puts on the project.
Flexible structuring
The program allows debt or equity. We usually recommend the equity model: investors fund a new commercial enterprise, which invests into the US business. Exit timelines are typically five years, though timing and structure vary by deal.
Funding scale
EB-5 capital can be pooled into a single offering, which is what allows a raise to reach size. It is common for EB-5 to make up 20 to 30 percent of the capital stack on a real estate development project.
Access when lending tightens
In a higher-rate market with tighter credit committees, EB-5 is a viable option for projects that cannot secure commercial financing on terms that work.
A turn-key process
We identify projects, structure the deal for EB-5, and coordinate with securities attorneys and other professionals to prepare the offering and project documents for filing. After the raise we track and report job creation, project expenditure, and the other regulatory items the program requires.
EB-5 is a securities offering and an immigration program at the same time. Offering documents are prepared by securities counsel, and an investor's immigration outcome depends on the project meeting the job creation and sustainment tests. We structure the raise, coordinate that work, and handle the reporting. We do not provide legal or immigration advice, and any adviser who tells you the immigration outcome is guaranteed is telling you something they cannot know.
TECHNOLOGY & AI
A lender underwrites the plan, including the technology in it.
Where the plan depends on a system replacement, a platform build, or an integration, the capital provider is underwriting that work whether or not the memorandum describes it. A lender who has not underwritten the capital expenditure line becomes an obstacle at the first amendment.
We put the technology investment in the materials with the same evidence as the rest of the plan. That means what it costs, when it is delivered, what it changes in the numbers, and who owns it. Where an investor wants that work reviewed independently, the Technology & AI practice runs the review under its own engagement letter. No raise requires it.
MIDDLE EAST
We raise capital from Middle East investors and advise companies entering the region.
Many countries in the Middle East are viable markets for a company planning new market entry, and the same relationships work in both directions. On the capital side, sovereign wealth funds, private equity firms, and family offices in the region invest into US and European businesses through this network.
On the market entry side, we advise on which market to enter, the regulatory exposure that comes with it, and how distribution and channel structure should be set up. We can co-invest or source greenfield opportunities alongside a local partner where the client wants a principal in the deal rather than only an adviser.
HOW A RAISE RUNS
Four stages, and you approve the investor list before outreach.
- 01
Mandate and materials
We agree what is being raised, what it funds, and what the business can service. Materials are built from the company's own numbers, and we say upfront where a lender will push back.
Checkpoint: an agreed structure and a data room a credit committee can work from.
- 02
Investor list
The list is built from investors currently deploying into this sector at this size, not from a directory. You see every name and approve it before it is approached.
Checkpoint: a named list you have signed off, with the reason each investor is on it.
- 03
Outreach and terms
Outreach runs in a managed sequence so the process stays competitive. Term sheets are compared on total cost and on covenant and control terms, not on the headline rate.
Checkpoint: term sheets side by side, with the terms that will constrain the company in year three called out.
- 04
Close and reporting
Documentation, conditions precedent, and funding, then the reporting the new capital provider expects. On an EB-5 raise that obligation continues for as long as the program requires it.
Checkpoint: funded, with the ongoing reporting calendar written down and owned.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What companies ask before a raise.
- Do you guarantee the capital gets raised?
No. No adviser can guarantee it. We will tell you at the first meeting whether we think this raise clears in the current market. We would rather decline a mandate than run a process that fails in month five. A failed process costs the company in ways that go beyond the fee.
- Can we include investors we already know?
Yes, and they usually belong on the list. Tell us which relationships are yours at the start and the engagement letter reflects it. Running a process around a company's own investors is normal and it does not need to be argued about later.
- How long does a raise take?
It depends on the structure and on how fast the company can produce clean financial information. The item that most often sets the timeline is the quality of the borrower's own reporting rather than investor appetite. EB-5 runs materially longer, because the offering documents, the filing, and the investor process each add time.
- Should we raise equity or take on more debt?
It depends on what the plan needs and what the business can service. Debt is cheaper, and it comes with covenants and a repayment schedule. Equity is more expensive, and it brings governance with it. We model both against the same plan and show you what each one does in the good case and the poor case before you choose.
- Is EB-5 right for us?
It is worth examining if the project creates jobs in the United States and can accept a longer setup. The project also has to support the reporting obligation for as long as the program requires. It is not a faster route to capital, and it does not suit a company that needs funding this quarter.
- How is this priced?
It depends on the size and structure of the raise and it is agreed in writing before work starts. We do not publish fees on this website, because the terms belong in the engagement letter rather than in marketing copy.
Talk about a raise
Tell us what the capital is being raised against.
The plan, the amount, and what the business can service is enough to start. We will tell you what we think it raises in this market, what structure we would run, and where the process is likely to be tested.
Bass Zanjani, who leads M&A Advisory, reads every brief. If we do not think the raise clears, we will say so before you sign anything.