TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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August 6, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: In Q2 the company achieved a record level of funding and grew its debt portfolio to $663 million, marking the highest quarterly funding since Q1 2022 and supporting future portfolio growth.
  • Positive Sentiment: TPVG continues to capitalize on the AI megatrend by adding new borrowers like Marvin, EightFold and RudderStack, with a near-record investment pipeline poised to drive sector diversification.
  • Positive Sentiment: The sponsor’s 14 million share purchase program and the advisor’s full income fee waiver through year-end demonstrate enhanced alignment with shareholders and support long-term NAV growth.
  • Negative Sentiment: The Board approved a dividend reduction from $0.30 to $0.23 per share to better align distributions with earnings, reflecting continued prepayment headwinds and funding timing delays.
  • Negative Sentiment: Second-quarter net investment income fell to $11.3 million ($0.28/share) from $12.6 million ($0.33/share) year-over-year and portfolio yield dipped to 14.5% due to prime rate cuts and high prepayment activity.
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Earnings Conference Call
TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Q2 2025
00:00 / 00:00

There are 6 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp. Second Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all lines have been placed in a listen only mode. After the speakers' remarks, there will be an opportunity to ask questions and instructions will follow at that time.

Operator

This conference is being recorded and a replay of the call will be available in an audio webcast on the TriplePoint Venture Growth website. Company management is pleased to share with you the company's results for the 2025. Today, representing the company is Jim Labe, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board Sajal Srivastava, President and Chief Investment Officer and Mike Mulhounds, Chief Financial Officer. Before I turn the call over to Mr. Labe, I'd like to direct your attention to the customary Safe Harbor disclosure in the company's press release regarding forward looking statements and remind you that during this call, management will make certain statements that relate to future events or the company's future performance or financial condition, which are considered forward looking under federal securities law.

Operator

You are asked to refer to the company's most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward looking statements or projections unless required by law. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward looking statements made during the call, which reflect management's opinions only as of today. To obtain copies of our latest SEC filings, please visit the company's website at www.tpvg.com. Now, I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr.

Operator

LeVeigh.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to TPVG's second quarter earnings call. Before I get into the second quarter update, I'll remind everyone that our focus remained on taking steps to increase the scale, durability and the income generating assets at TPVG and our sites are set on setting the stage now for the future. I'd also like to highlight that TPVG sponsor and advisor implemented two measures that we believe further strengthen their alignment of interest with TPVG shareholders and which I'll get into a little later in my remarks as well as aligning our distribution level with our current earnings. The second quarter marked another quarter of increased investment activity.

Speaker 1

We grew the debt investment portfolio to $663,000,000 at cost and continue to capitalize on the strong demand from venture growth stage companies in the favorable investment sectors that we're focused on these days. Time term sheets with venture growth stage companies at our sponsor TriplePoint Capital finished strong last quarter. Over the last three quarters, we now have signed term sheets for venture growth stage companies that have exceeded $875,000,000 Both debt commitments and fundings also increased during the quarter, reaching their highest level since fiscal twenty twenty two and which helped translate into Q2 fundings that exceeded our guided range. This is the highest level of funding activity in the last ten quarters. At quarter's end, our pipeline also continued to remain at near record highs since its peak back in 2021.

Speaker 1

While we anticipate that these notable increases in signed term sheet and commitments all bode well for future growth, we expect this portfolio growth is going to take some time and to materialize over the next several quarters because of the level and amount of prepayment and also the rate of utilization of our underfunded commitments over the course of the year. Touching on the market, while some uncertainties and volatility certainly remain in the venture capital market here in Q2, investment activity continued and venture growth stage deal activity surge driven by the persistent momentum going on in the AI space. According to PitchBook NVCA for the 2025, 84,000,000,000 of venture growth stage investments were deployed across an estimated four ninety nine deals. PitchBook also noted positive developments in the broader venture capital IPO market and the M and A markets in Q2, generating $68,000,000,000 across two ninety four exits, marking the highest quarterly value since Q4 twenty twenty one. There really has been an increase in M and A and IPO activity for sure, although somewhat limited, but increasing last quarter.

Speaker 1

Given TPVG's relative lease sizable equity and warrant portfolio, we stand to unlock value in the portfolio as the exit market continues to evolve and this window I've been talking about opens up a little further. As an example, we have substantial holdings in Revolut. We also warrant positions in some leading companies, which were reported publicly as potential future IPO candidates. And includes names such as Cohesity, Revolut, Zeb's, Dialpad, FileVine and others. At quarter's end, TPVG held warrant positions in some 106 portfolio companies and equity investments in 52 companies.

Speaker 1

Turning to the broader portfolio, our focus is on growing and diversifying the portfolio. We actively added new borrowers borrowers in Q2 focused on high potential and durable sectors such as AI. We remain excited by the market opportunity AI presents and we think it will be a massive megatrend that persists for many years to come. We will continue on our path to pursue selectivity, diversification and investment sector rotation as we grow. And in addition to AI, this includes other sectors we see as attractive such as verticalized software, FinTech, aerospace and defense, robotics, cyber security and health tech.

Speaker 1

During the second quarter, we added several new AI companies to our portfolio including Marvin, Eight Fold and Rudderstack. These are companies which are leveraging AI to redefine and disrupt various horizontal functions of the enterprise including marketing, sales and HR. We never cease to be amazed by the speed of advancement across every corner of our economy. We believe AI is providing a renaissance and macro tailwind to the broader technology sector with the potential to surpass the impact of the internet, cloud computing or the mobile revolution. As we invest in today's attractive sectors, our focus remains on companies that have recently raised capital, have ample cash runways, have backing from our select venture capital investors and are led by prudent management teams, all with business models that have attractive unit economics.

Speaker 1

We strive to emphasize better capitalized companies with visibility to profitability and also business models reflective of today's venture market conditions and valuations. In summary, while we're encouraged by our steadily increasing investment activity in the venture market improvements and trends, our portfolio growth is definitely taking longer than expected given the prepayment activity and the rate of unfunded commitments utilization. As alluded, let me touch on a few recent developments, which we believe demonstrates alignment with shareholders and positions the company to provide long term shareholder returns as we continue to take steps to increase TBVG scale, durability, income generating assets and its NAV over the long term. Underlying its commitment and support of TPVG and its growth strategy, our sponsor TriplePoint Capital announced the discretionary share program today to acquire up to 14,000,000 of the company's outstanding shares of common stock over the next twelve months in the open market, subject to regulatory and other customary limitations. Over time, we believe this will translate into an increasing insider ownership with TPVG and provide even greater alignment with our shareholders.

Speaker 1

The Board also made the decision to reduce our regular quarterly distribution to $0.23 per share. This was a difficult, but we believe prudent decision that will enable us to better align our distribution levels as fundings under newer commitments gradually continue to materialize and our historical prepayment activity remains present within the portfolio. This decision also took into consideration the expectation of future rate cuts by the Fed as well as the higher interest rate environment we will face on refinancing our notes maturing in early twenty twenty six. We believe most importantly, this puts us in a more favorable position to over earn our dividend regularly. Finally, subsequent to the quarter's end, our advisor amended its existing income incentive fee waiver to waive in full its quarterly income incentive fee for the remainder of this year as well.

Speaker 1

Along with the support of our sponsor and advisor, we believe we're setting the stage for and continue on the path for the future to create long term shareholder value. With that, let me turn the call over to Sajal.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Jim, good afternoon. Regarding investment portfolio activity during Q2, TriplePoint Capital signed $242,000,000 of term sheets with venture growth stage companies compared to $188,000,000 of term sheets in Q2 twenty twenty four and $315,000,000 in Q1 twenty twenty five. With regards to new investment allocation to TPVG during the second quarter, sorry, TPC allocated $160,000,000 in new commitments with eight companies to TPVG compared to $52,000,000 in Q2 twenty twenty four and $77,000,000 in Q1 twenty twenty five. 75% of the portfolio companies we extended commitments to during the quarter were new customers, all of which fall in the AI and enterprise software sectors, reflecting our focus on obligor diversification and sector rotation. During the second quarter, we exceeded our guided range and funded $79,000,000 in debt investments to nine companies as compared to $39,000,000 to five companies in Q2 twenty twenty four and $28,000,000 to five companies in Q1 twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2

These funded investments carried a weighted average annualized portfolio yield of 12.3%, down from 13.3 in Q1. During Q2, we had $44,000,000 of loan prepayments, resulting in an overall weighted average debt portfolio yield of 14.5%. Excluding prepayments, our core portfolio yield was 13.6%, which was down from 14.1% in Q1. During the quarter, we grew our debt investment portfolio for the first time materially since Q1 twenty twenty three as a result of new fundings exceeding both prepayment, repayment and amortization activity within the portfolio by $31,000,000 Although we continue to see robust demand for debt financing from venture growth stage companies, as demonstrated by our $114,000,000 of new commitments and $21,000,000 of funding so far in Q3, our quarterly target for new fundings continues to be in the 25,000,000 to $50,000,000 range for Q3 twenty twenty five, with the potential to be at the higher end or slightly above the range in Q4. However, we continue to expect at least one repayment event per quarter this year, which will likely result in our ability to achieve substantial portfolio growth occurring over the course of 2026 when we expect prepayment activity to slow down and potentially our quarterly new debt funding range to expand.

Speaker 2

Five portfolio companies with debt outstanding raised $216,000,000 during the quarter compared to four portfolio companies raising $137,000,000 in Q1. As of quarter end, we held warrants in 106 companies and equity investments in 52 companies with a total fair value of $127,000,000 up from Q1 as a result primarily of a $7,300,000 markup in our warrant and equity holdings in Revolut. Our markup this quarter reflects an adjusted value based on the annual financial statements Revolut filed in April, which announced revenues of $4,000,000,000 up 72% and net profit of $1,000,000,000 roughly double from 2023. In July, it was reported that Revolut raised $2,000,000,000 of equity at a $75,000,000,000 valuation, which bodes well for further potential appreciation of our holdings as well as does the successful U. S.

Speaker 2

IPO of Chime, which operates in a similar sector to Revolut. During the quarter, one company with a principal balance of $2,100,000 was downgraded from category two to category three due to delays in strategic and or fundraising process, but we believe remains on track. And one company, Frubana, a B2B marketplace for restaurants and retailers in Latin America with a principal balance of $11,000,000 was downgraded from category two to category four as a result of investors walking from assigned term sheet and withdrawing their support for the company. We are working with the company and their advisors to evaluate strategic options for the company to maximize value and recovery. While we are starting to see improving market conditions in the venture market as a whole, there continue to be events which adversely impact specific sectors or subsectors and cause certain types of investors to pull back or cause transactions including M and A to be delayed or fall apart despite continued underlying performance by the company and result in its accelerated decline.

Speaker 2

We will continue to real time assess portfolio company developments, performance and outlook over the course of the year and update our marks and values accordingly. With regards to tariffs, as we discussed last quarter, although the situation continues to evolve, we have reviewed our portfolio and have not seen any material impact to those few companies that may have some U. S. Tariff exposure. Most of these companies have been actively working to explore opportunities to change their supply chains and source products in lower tariff regions, increase pricing and or expand their sales outside of The U.

Speaker 2

S. In closing, we remain aligned, disciplined and mindful of the volatile market environment, while executing on our plan for positioning TPVG for the long term by building overall scale, diversification and durability, targeting well positioned and well capitalized new customers in attractive sectors and driving investment fundings and our earnings power to build shareholder value. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Mike.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Sajal, and hello, everyone. During the second quarter, we funded $79,000,000 of new debt investments, up from $28,000,000 in the prior quarter and received $45,000,000 in prepayments and early repayments, driving a net increase of $31,000,000 in our debt investment portfolio at cost. As of 06/30/2025, the company had total liquidity of $313,000,000 consisting of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash of $63,000,000 and available capacity under its revolving credit facility of $250,000,000 Of the $250,000,000 of available capacity under the revolving credit facility, there was $91,000,000 of available borrowing base that could be drawn as of 06/30/2025. We ended the quarter with $185,000,000 of floating rate unfunded investment commitments, of which $27,000,000 was dependent upon certain portfolio companies reaching specific milestones. Our unfunded investment commitments expire over the next two point five years with $20,000,000 expiring in 2025, dollars 88,000,000 expiring in 2026 and $77,000,000 expiring in 2027.

Speaker 3

The end of quarter unfunded commitments represents a 58% increase from the prior quarter, reflecting the continued expansion of our investment pipeline over recent quarters and successful conversion of signed term sheets into closed commitments. We ended the quarter with a leverage ratio of 1.22x. After netting the cash on our balance sheet, net leverage stood at 1.04x. Given the cash we have on our balance sheet, the available borrowing base at quarter end and our target leverage range of 1.3x to 1.4x, we believe we have ample funding capacity for unfunded commitments and for the upcoming refinancing discussed later in my prepared remarks. Turning to our operating results.

Speaker 3

For the second quarter, total investment income was $23,300,000 with a portfolio yield of 14.5% as compared to $27,100,000 with a portfolio yield of 15.8% for the prior year period. The decrease in total investment income was due primarily to a lower average debt portfolio as compared to a year ago, while the lower portfolio yield reflected the impact of prime rate reductions and less accelerated prepayment income in the quarter. For the second quarter, total operating expenses were $12,000,000 as compared to $14,500,000 for the prior year period. These expenses consisted of 6,700,000.0 expense, dollars 3,300,000.0 of base management fees, 6 and 29,000 of administrative agreement expenses and $1,400,000 of G and A expenses. Due to the shareholder friendly total return requirement under the incentive fee calculation, the incentive fee waivers from the company's advisor, there were no income incentive fees during the 2025.

Speaker 3

In the current quarter, 1,300,000.0 of income incentive fees were earned but fully waived by the advisor. As a result of the fee waivers mentioned by Jim earlier, we will not incur any income incentive fee expense for the remainder of 2025. The company's net investment income for the 2025 was $11,300,000 or $0.28 per share as compared to a net investment income of $12,600,000 or $0.33 per share for the 2024. For the 2025, net realized losses on investments totaled $32,000 During the 2024, the company recognized net realized losses on investments of 18,800,000.0 investments for the 2025 was $1,900,000 consisting of $6,800,000 of net unrealized gains on the existing warrant and equity portfolio resulting from fair value adjustments and $5,800,000 of net unrealized gains from foreign currency adjustments, partially offset by $10,700,000 of net unrealized losses on the debt investment portfolio resulting from fair value adjustments. During the 2024, the company recognized net unrealized gains on investments of $14,900,000 The company's net realized and unrealized gains were $1,900,000 for the 2025 compared to net realized and unrealized losses of 4,000,000 for the 2024.

Speaker 3

The company's net sorry, the company's net increase in net assets resulting from operations for the 2025 was $13,200,000 or $0.33 per share as compared to a net increase in net assets resulting from operations of $8,600,000 or $0.22 per share for the 2024. As of 06/30/2025, net asset value was $348,700,000 or $8.65 per share compared to $347,000,000 or $8.62 per share as of 03/31/2025. On August 5, our Board declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.23 per share payable on September 30 to shareholders of record as of September 16. While we remain focused on increasing net investment income in the coming quarters, we reduced the dividend from $0.30 to $0.23 per share to better align distribution levels as fundings from newer commitments continue to ramp and prepayment activity remains present in the portfolio. We believe this adjustment also positions the company to over earn future dividends and prepare for the anticipated increase in our cost of debt capital as we look ahead to refinancing $200,000,000 of our $375,000,000 in total fixed rate notes, maturing in the 2026 with a 4.5% fixed coupon.

Speaker 3

At quarter end, we had estimated spillover income of $42,000,000 or $1.04 per share. Now an update on our capital structure and liquidity. As of quarter end, total debt outstanding was $425,000,000 consisting of $375,000,000 in fixed rate investment grade term notes and $50,000,000 drawn on our $300,000,000 floating rate revolving credit facility. Our fixed rate term notes have scheduled maturities in March 2026, February 2027 and February 2028. With $200,000,000 of 4.5% fixed rate notes maturing in March 2026 and given the current interest rate environment, our capital management strategy remains focused on preserving liquidity and financial flexibility to address this refinancing on favorable terms, while continuing to support growth in our investment portfolio and providing shareholder returns in the form of quarterly dividends.

Speaker 3

As we evaluate refinancing options and market timing for the March 2026 maturity, a key objective is to optimize both our fixed versus floating rate mix and our term versus revolving debt profile. At this time, we expect to refinance the $200,000,000 maturity with a combination of issuing a new tranche of fixed rate unsecured notes in the first quarter of twenty twenty six and use available cash and revolver capacity to retire the remaining balance. Looking ahead, we anticipate increased use of our floating rate revolving credit facility in connection with our refinancing plans. The $300,000,000 facility is scheduled for renewal in November 2025, and we plan to size and structure it to align with our projected AUM and long term capital strategy. This completes our prepared remarks today.

Speaker 3

And so operator, could you please open the line for questions at this time?

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. Our first question comes from Kristen Love of Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Good afternoon. First on the outlook for fundings. Second quarter is very strong, pipeline still seems to be strong, but you're still expecting 25,000,000 to $50,000,000 per quarter, I think over the near term. Can you just dig into that a little bit more?

Speaker 4

I understand the third quarter can be a little bit seasonally slower for VC. So wondering if that's a factor. And then just share some thoughts for the fourth quarter and 2026 just based on what you're seeing today.

Speaker 2

Chris. It's Sajal. I'll take it. So I think it's a combination of lower utilization of historical unfunded commitments, lower upfront utilization of new upfront commitments. So I'd say that's the combination.

Speaker 2

Then for Q3, a little bit of seasonality, as you said, although we've got a strong start to the quarter so far. And then Q4, as I guided, expecting to be probably at the higher range and potentially above given, again, Q4 tends to be a busier quarter as well.

Speaker 4

Okay, perfect. And then just second question for me. I saw the TruePoint Capital stock purchase program, definitely good to see there. But would you also expect to be active with stock buybacks? Or is that unlikely right now just as you preserve liquidity with some of the maturities coming up?

Speaker 1

Yes, I'll take that Chris. And I think it's mostly ourselves and the board having in mind creating long term shareholder value. So always actively considering assessing really what comes down to capital allocation. And presently, in terms of capital allocation, it's financial flexibility. So we need to think about our unfunded commitments.

Speaker 1

We need to think about our upcoming debt maturities in 2026. We have to think about keeping within our targeted leverage range, refinancing the debt as I mentioned, and really the financial flexibility. We got the debt rating and some other things coming up and also having the liquidity and the capital, that's right. But having said all that, we've done buybacks in the past. The Board will continue to consider actively all these capital allocation issues and balances, including a buyback.

Speaker 4

Great. Thank you, Jim and Sajal. Appreciate you both taking my questions.

Operator

The next question comes from Douglas Harter of UBS. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Thanks. I guess, can you just talk about the repayment activity, kind of what is it that you're seeing that's kind of causing that to be somewhat elevated that's holding back growth? Why do you expect that to slow next year?

Speaker 2

Yes. I'll take it, Doug. So I would say it continues to be robust equity funding raising activity from portfolio companies. And so we're seeing an element of that with the prepayment activity. We're seeing M and A and other activity as well, which is also occurring.

Speaker 2

And then I think as we look to just 2026, again, the seasonality of the portfolio, the vintages of the portfolio, we would expect, again, the older vintages have very much completed their prepayment activity. We will have fresher, newer vintages from the fundings that we have. And so we would expect prepayment activity to be more delayed in 2026, if anything, back half loaded and into 2027.

Speaker 5

Great. Appreciate that, Sasol. Thanks.

Operator

This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Jim Labe for any closing remarks.

Speaker 1

As always, I'd like to thank everyone for listening and participating in today's call. We look forward to updating and talking with you all again next quarter. Thanks again and have a nice day.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

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