Amortisation-free years
Years at the start of a loan when you pay interest but no principal. Business Finland R&D loans include three to five of them.
Why it matters
Repayments start only when the project should already be generating revenue.
Years at the start of a loan when you pay interest but no principal. Business Finland R&D loans include three to five of them.
Repayments start only when the project should already be generating revenue.
A loan a bank gives your foreign customer to pay for your delivery, with Finnvera guaranteeing the bank's risk.
It lets you offer payment terms without carrying the credit risk yourself, which is often what closes an export deal.
A subordinated loan defined in the Finnish Companies Act. It is repaid and pays interest only from distributable funds and ranks behind all other creditors, and in return it counts as equity when the balance sheet is assessed.
It is the fastest way to fix a weak equity ratio without an ownership change, and often the key that unlocks the rest of the stack.
Conditions attached to a loan, such as a minimum equity ratio or a maximum debt-to-EBITDA, that the company must keep to for the whole term. Breaching one can make the loan repayable immediately.
Read them before signing, because a covenant breach in a bad year can turn a manageable loan into an acute crisis.
A right to buy shares later at a price agreed now. Venture-debt lenders typically take warrants as part of their return.
The cheap loan carries hidden dilution, so price it in when you compare options.
The unrestricted equity reserve of a Finnish limited company, money invested into the company without issuing new shares on day one. It is the standard route for founder and investor contributions, and the usual legal wrapper for SAFE-style investments in Finland.
Money comes in quickly without a valuation or new shares up front, but put in writing what the investor receives later.
You hand your sent invoices to a finance company, which pays you most of their value right away and collects the payment from your customer later.
It shortens the wait for money, at a cost. It works best with reliable business customers and a steady flow of invoices.
TyEL is the statutory pension insurance every employer in Finland pays for employees. Part of the contributions paid over the years can be borrowed back from the pension company as a loan.
A financing source many companies have without knowing it.
The Finnish state's financing company. For established firms it mostly does not lend directly. It guarantees bank loans instead, taking part of the risk off the bank.
A guarantee can make a bank loan possible when the company's own collateral is not enough.
An agreement that lets the bank account balance go below zero, up to an agreed limit. You pay a fee for the limit and interest only on the amount in use.
A common first instrument for bridging gaps and seasonal variation in the cash cycle.