Definition
Patient capital
Patient capital refers to long-term investments in early-stage or growth businesses, where investors are willing to offer flexible terms and wait several years for potential returns.
Patient capital is money a small or medium-sized private business raises. Its name refers to its lenient repayment terms. Because it is often raised through family or friends it is sometimes called “love money.”
Patient capital can be either debt or equity and often displays one or more of the following features:
- There is no contract spelling out payments of interest, principal or dividends
- The lender does not get any ownership of the company
- No collateral is used as security
- The debt could be forgiven
More about patient capital
One distinct type of patient capital is a “subrogated shareholder loan,” which has the same lenient terms as standard patient capital but is provided by a shareholder rather than friends or family. The shareholder signs a subrogation agreement that defines the money as patient capital, which banks will consider when calculating how much more debt the company can take on.
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