Exhibit n.4
February 7, 2012
Gabriela Martes
Global Venture Capital Services
VentureSource / FIS / Dow Jones & Co.
201 California Street, 10th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111
Dear Gabriela,
Hercules would like the consent of VentureSource/Dow Jones to use the following paragraphs in our upcoming Filing. If acceptable, please sign and scan or fax to me at 866.811.3908.
Thank you,
Sally Borg
Unfulfilled Demand for Structured Debt Financing to Technology-Related Companies. Private debt capital in the form of structured debt financing from specialty finance companies continues to be an important source of funding for technology-related companies. We believe that the level of demand for structured debt financing is a function of the level of annual venture equity investment activity. In the first nine months of 2011, venture capital-backed companies received, in approximately 2,229 transactions, equity financing in an aggregate amount of approximately $23.3 billion, representing a 29.4% increase from the same period of the preceding year, as reported by Dow Jones VentureSource. In addition, overall, the median round size in the first three month periods ended September 30, 2011 and 2010 was approximately $6.0 million and $5.0 million, respectively. We believe the larger number of companies provides us a greater opportunity to provide debt financing to these venture backed companies. Overall, seed- and first-round deals made up 42% of the deal flow in the three months ended September 30, 2011 and later-stage deals made up roughly 37% of the deal activity in the quarter.
/s/ Gabriela Martes | Gabriela Martes, Global Venture Capital Service | |
February 7, 2012 | Date |
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