We provide lender-ready capital raise packaging and debt or equity placement support for business owners and buyers looking to secure serious term sheets and close funding on a defined timeline.
For business owners and acquirers pursuing private debt or equity, submit your deal for review. We revert within one working day with next steps and either a quote for our services.
For pre-submission discussions, we offer paid consultations. To initiate underwriting and lender outreach, submit the deal.
M&A And Acquisition Finance
Independent sponsors win by controlling process, not by improvising. The hard part is not “finding a deal.” The hard part is building a lender and investor grade file fast enough to secure a credible capital stack before exclusivity runs out.
This guide is a step-by-step execution playbook: deal origination, LOI tactics, diligence sequencing, capital stack design, lender decisioning, and closing mechanics. It is written for sponsors who want a repeatable process and fewer preventable blowups.
If you want lender decisioning and a structured submission path, see What We Do and submit via Submit Your Deal.
Start with constraints, not ambition. Your acquisition box should define industry, business model, margin profile, minimum EBITDA, customer concentration tolerances, and acceptable leverage. The goal is simple: deals you can finance on market terms.
Sourcing is a pipeline game. Independent sponsors typically run parallel channels: proprietary outbound, intermediated inbound, and referral networks. The difference between amateurs and closers is tracking, follow-up cadence, and thesis consistency.
Operator principle: every serious conversation should leave a paper trail: teaser, NDA, CIM, Q&A log, and next-step date. If it lives in chat threads, it will die in chat threads.
Your first pass is not “does this business sound cool.” It is “is this financeable and closeable.” You want to detect fatal issues before you spend diligence dollars.
| Workstream | What You Ask For Early | What You Are Testing |
|---|---|---|
| Financial quality | Last 3 years financials, TTM, bank statements, AR and AP aging | Reliability of EBITDA, working capital needs, seasonality |
| Customer concentration | Top customers, contracts, renewal terms, pricing logic | Revenue durability and renegotiation risk |
| Operations | Org chart, key staff, systems stack, supplier dependencies | Owner dependency and execution risk |
| Legal and compliance | Licenses, claims history, material litigation, IP posture | Hidden liabilities and non-transferability risks |
| Capital structure | Debt schedule, liens, covenants, seller notes, leases | Security conflicts and refinance feasibility |
An LOI is a risk allocation instrument disguised as a handshake. It should lock key economics while preserving your ability to walk if diligence fails or financing is not obtainable on defined assumptions.
Diligence should be staged. Start with what can kill the deal, then expand. Independent sponsors often burn time by running deep diligence before confirming financeability.
Sequencing rule: confirm quality of earnings drivers and working capital dynamics early. If cash conversion is ugly, leverage will be constrained and your equity check grows.
Your capital stack should be designed around lender constraints, not sponsor preferences. Most acquisition stacks are a combination of senior debt, sponsor equity, and occasionally mezzanine, preferred equity, or seller financing.
| Capital Layer | Role In The Stack | Key Underwrite Inputs |
|---|---|---|
| Senior secured debt | Primary leverage, lowest cost tranche | Cash flow stability, DSCR, leverage, collateral and covenants |
| Asset based revolver | Working capital liquidity against AR and inventory | Eligibility, dilution, reporting, field exams, controls |
| Mezzanine | Fill leverage gap, increases purchase capacity | Intercreditor, free cash flow, covenant headroom |
| Preferred equity | Equity gap filler with defined economics | Waterfall, sponsor promote, cure and control rights |
| Seller note and rollover | Alignment and reduced cash at close | Subordination terms, maturity, performance triggers |
You do not get term sheets with scattered documents. You get term sheets with a coherent lender-grade package. The lender wants a file that reads like an internal credit memo: clear, conservative, and supported by evidence.
Term sheets are a process output. You want structured outreach waves, consistent package versioning, and a decisioning log. The goal is competitive tension without creating confusion or credibility loss.
Process: build once, submit many. Rebuild only when new diligence changes the credit story in a material way.
After a term sheet, the work becomes legal, operational, and timeline management. The typical failure mode is ignoring covenant mechanics, closing conditions, and security perfection requirements until the last week.
Independent sponsors lose deals after closing by treating lenders like a one-time hurdle. Post-close is covenant compliance, reporting cadence, and operational control. If you run tight reporting, you preserve optionality for add-ons, refinancings, and dividend recap outcomes later.
Financely operates as a transaction-led capital advisory desk for acquisition finance. We build the lender-grade package, align the credit narrative to market underwriting, and run decisioning to term sheets or written declines with reasons. Where execution requires licensing, we coordinate execution through appropriately licensed partners under their approvals.
To start, see How It Works and submit your acquisition through Submit Your Deal.
If you have a target, submit the teaser or CIM, TTM financials, proposed purchase price, draft sources and uses, and your timeline. We will revert with feasibility, a document checklist, and a decisioning plan sized to your closing window.
Submitting inconsistent numbers, unsupported add-backs, and vague projections. Lenders underwrite evidence and controls. If the file reads like marketing, decisioning stalls or dies.
You need an equity plan that is credible and documented. Some lenders will issue terms with conditional equity assumptions, but tight timelines usually require identifiable equity sources and a clear closing plan.
Use earnouts only when the revenue drivers are measurable and the reporting can be controlled. Earnouts are a valuation bridge, not a substitute for weak diligence or undefined performance metrics.
After initial financeability checks, and early enough to influence structure. QoE is not just a buyer comfort tool. It is often the determinant of leverage and covenant headroom.
Target profile, TTM financials, purchase price, sources and uses, working capital summary, customer concentration, and sponsor profile. If you have none of that, you do not have a financeable submission yet.
By building a lender-grade package, matching the mandate to the correct lenders, and running structured decisioning to term sheets or written declines with reasons. Submit through Submit Your Deal.
Independent sponsoring is a systems game. If your process is disciplined and your file is lender-grade, you will win more often, close faster, and waste less time on dead ends.
Financely advises growth-focused businesses on accessing capital by introducing their opportunities to professional investors. Financely is not a securities broker or dealer. Where appropriate, engagements are coordinated with regulated broker-dealers, investment banks, legal counsel, and other specialists.
Financely does not solicit, offer, or accept orders to buy or sell securities and makes no assurance regarding capital-raising outcomes.
Services are strictly business-to-business. Financely does not provide personal finance, consumer credit, or retail advisory services.
Advisory services are reserved for post-revenue companies that recognize the time and resources required for professional underwriting.
To proceed,
request a quote
and receive indicative commercial terms. If you require guidance before engaging,
book a paid telephone consultation.
Security notice: we are aware of third parties using Financely’s name without authorization. Only emails sent from our official domains and communications through our portal are valid. Please verify any outreach before sharing documents or sending payments, and read our impersonation warning.
All mandates start with an RFQ. We review submissions, issue a brief Go/No-Go memo, and where bankable, release a Term Sheet that leads to funding. We arrange capital across Senior Secured, Unitranche, Second Lien/Mezzanine, Preferred Equity, and Gap Solutions. We do not process deals by email or chat.
Letters of Credit, Standby LCs, Confirmations, Receivables Finance, and Inventory Lines with control.
Funding arranged for trade flows with instruments sized to your cycle and aligned to delivery and settlement.
Move forward to secure working capital and keep goods moving. Submit the RFQ to start underwriting for funding.
Limited or non-recourse structures for energy and infrastructure with lender-ready materials.
Funding solutions aligned to project cash flows with credible covenants and conditions to reach notice to proceed.
Advance the file to termable status. Submit the RFQ so we can underwrite and secure funding.
Debt and Preferred solutions anchored on cash flow, Quality of Earnings, and clear closing mechanics.
Funding across senior, unitranche, and preferred to match stable cash flows and acquisition timelines.
Get financed on workable terms for closing. Submit the RFQ to start underwriting.
Acquisition, development, bridge, and refinance with lender-ready packs and third-party reports managed.
Funding calibrated to DSCR, leverage, and tenancy with terms designed to close.
Move to a financeable package. Submit the RFQ to initiate underwriting for funding.
KYC and Source of Funds required. Engagements are best-efforts and subject to underwriting. Preference for operating companies with meaningful revenue. See our FAQ and Procedure.
Financely Inc. (“Financely”) provides corporate-finance advice and is wholly owned by Aurora Bay Trust, a trust formed under Bahamian law, together with its authorized affiliates. Depending on deal structure, jurisdiction, and local rules, engagements may be carried out through Financely Group LLC, a non-deposit-taking, non-banking financial company; Ashford Capital Advisory LLC; or another related entity.
Financely and its affiliates are not registered as securities broker-dealers and do not execute securities transactions or hold client funds or securities. When a mandate involves the purchase or sale of securities and a registered intermediary is required, any orders are introduced to and executed by one or more independent U.S. broker-dealers registered with the SEC and FINRA. Those broker-dealers are solely responsible for trade execution, custody, and related regulatory obligations. Nothing in this material constitutes an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to buy or sell any security or to engage in any specific transaction. Before engaging Financely Group LLC, Ashford Capital Advisory LLC, or any affiliate, you are responsible for confirming that such engagement complies with your own legal, regulatory, tax, and other requirements. In the United States, certain advisory activities may be conducted in reliance on exemptions available under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, including the “foreign private adviser” exemption where applicable. Our services and regulatory status may vary by jurisdiction and by transaction type.
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