Monroe Capital, a boutique asset management firm specializing in private credit markets across various strategies, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Horizon Technology Finance Management. Horizon is the investment advisor to Horizon Technology Finance Corporation.
As a pioneer in venture lending, Horizon has deployed more than $3 billion in loan commitments across more than 315 venture-backed companies since its founding in 2004. Many leading technology companies count Horizon as an early lender and partner.
“We are excited to welcome Horizon to the Monroe Capital family,” Ted Koenig, chairman and CEO of Monroe, said. “We have studied the venture lending space with significant interest over the years. We view Horizon, together with its management and 32-person team, as an industry-leading platform with a track record spanning over 20 years. We are excited by the prospects of leveraging our strong fundraising and investor relations capabilities to offer our limited partners a differentiated “alpha” generating product in one of the fastest growing segments of private credit. This acquisition enhances our value proposition and continues Monroe’s strategy of providing differentiated niche focused investment solutions to institutional and high net worth clients around the world. We expect Horizon’s strong track record of historical returns will be compelling to investors seeking diversification and less correlation to the overall markets.”
“Consistent with our thesis on technology and software lending, we believe that venture lending benefits from similar characteristics,” Zia Uddin, president of Monroe, said. “Technology-related companies compete in some of the most rapidly growing sectors of the U.S. economy with growth fueled by ongoing innovation and improvements in technology, which requires financing from sophisticated lenders who understand their businesses and have industry expertise. Companies focused on growth today find themselves facing significant increases in cost of capital and fewer choices of high quality, user friendly debt providers. We believe Monroe’s acquisition will provide Horizon the foundation to become the lender of choice to venture capital backed companies in the market. We are excited about the prospects of adding an experienced investment team to take advantage of this highly compelling and less competitive market opportunity.”
“We are thrilled to partner with Monroe in the next chapter of Horizon’s growth,” Rob Pomeroy, CEO of Horizon, said. “We feel that Monroe’s history of growth and innovation will be the perfect complement to building on the success that Horizon has enjoyed over the last 20 years. The Monroe platform has significant presence across the U.S. with over a 20-year track record and approximately $16 billion under management. We look forward to working with Monroe to greatly expand our position of market leadership in the venture debt arena.”
