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Keylime (www.keylimesoftware.com), a Carlsbad, Calif., e-business ASP, needed a friendly financier. Several million dollars worth of friendliness, according to CFO Michael Brower.
Keylimes heavy financing requirements encompass a Web analytic tool and other critical equipment needed to provide security and service to monthly subscription customers such as Compaq and IBM. In choosing a financing partner, above all, Brower looked for a firm that was not only large enough to provide a $3 million credit line, but that also would not extend its tentacles into Keylime.
“My main objective was no debt covenants,” explains Brower. “So if for some unlikely reason we have problems, we [would be on the hook] only for the equipment, which the financing firm could come in and get. There would be no need to have our company assets collateralizing the debt.”
After looking at four potential financial allies, Keylime selected Transamerica Technology Finance, a branch of Transamerica Finance Corp. that has extensive channel experience.
Brower is pleased with the way the relationship has progressed. Keylime, he notes, gets to keep the equipment off its books and can use precious cash from its venture capitalists to invest in people and in sales and marketing. “This makes a big impact on both our balance sheet and cash flow,” says Brower.