TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Executive Summary

• Mixed quarter: TPVG’s Q2 2025 revenue and EPS modestly missed consensus as lower average earning assets, reduced prepayment income, and lower Prime-driven yields weighed on topline; fundings and commitments accelerated to multi‑year highs, setting up a better deployment backdrop. EPS $0.28 vs $0.296 consensus; revenue $23.28M vs $23.75M consensus. Dividend reset to $0.23 to align with earnings and 2026 refinancing visibility.
• Deployment inflected: $160.1M new debt commitments (+109% QoQ); $78.5M fundings (highest in 10 quarters); term sheets $241.5M at TPC (non-binding). Portfolio yield stayed resilient at 14.5%; debt portfolio cost increased to $663.8M.
• Balance sheet and support: Adviser will waive income incentive fees for the rest of 2025; sponsor announced up to $14M discretionary share purchase program; liquidity $312.5M; net leverage 1.04x; NAV/share $8.65 (up sequentially).
• Stock reaction catalysts: dividend cut to $0.23, consensus misses, and new sponsor buy program; management emphasizes portfolio growth and sector rotation (AI/enterprise software) while prepayments and utilization pace moderate deployment timing.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Multi‑year high origination activity: $160.1M new commitments and $78.5M fundings; term sheets $241.5M at TPC, pointing to a strong pipeline and increasing scale/diversification.
• Yield resilience and NAV uptick: Weighted average portfolio yield 14.5% (flat QoQ) and NAV/share increased to $8.65 from $8.62 in Q1; net investment income of $0.28/share covered most of the new $0.23 dividend.
• Alignment measures: Adviser waived income incentive fees for the remainder of 2025; sponsor announced up to $14M share purchases. CEO: “The pipeline at TPC remains strong... increased scale, diversification and sector rotation.”.

What Went Wrong

• Consensus miss: EPS $0.28 vs $0.296; revenue $23.28M vs $23.75M; primarily due to lower average principal outstanding, lower yields from Prime reductions, and less prepayment income.
• Dividend reduced: Distribution reset to $0.23 (from $0.30) to align with earnings power and balance sheet planning ahead of 2026 maturities, likely a near‑term sentiment headwind.
• Credit mix slightly weaker: Weighted average investment ranking moved to 2.17 (from 2.12 in Q1); downgrades of two names (to Yellow and Orange) and net unrealized losses on debt offset by gains in equity/warrants and FX.

Transcript

Speaker 5

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp.'s second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all lines have been placed in the listen-only mode. After the speaker's remarks, there will be an opportunity to ask questions, and instructions will follow at that time. 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 second quarter of 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 Wilhelms, 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 statements under Federal Securities Law. 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. Labe.

Speaker 3

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. Our sights are set on setting the stage now for the future. I'd also like to highlight that TPVG's sponsor and advisor implemented two measures that we believe further strengthen their alignment of interests with TPVG's shareholders, 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. We grew the debt investment portfolio to $663 million 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.

Signed 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 million. Both debt commitments and fundings also increased during the quarter, reaching their highest level since fiscal 2022, which helped translate into Q2 fundings that exceeded our guided range. This is the highest level of funding activity in the last 10 quarters. At quarter's end, our pipeline also continued to remain at near record highs since its peak back in 2021.

While we anticipate that these notable increases in signed term sheets and commitments all bode well for future growth, we expect this portfolio growth is going to take some time to materialize over the next several quarters because of the level and amount of prepayments, and also the rate of utilization of our unfunded 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 surged, driven by the persistent momentum going on in the AI space. According to PitchBook NVCA for the first half of 2025, $84 billion of venture growth stage investments were deployed across an estimated 499 deals.

PitchBook also noted positive developments in the broader venture capital IPO market and the M&A markets in Q2, generating $68 billion across 294 exits, marking the highest quarterly value since Q4 2021. There really has been an increase in M&A and IPO activity for sure, although somewhat limited but increasing last quarter. Given TPVG's relatively 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 have warrant positions in some leading companies which are reported publicly as potential future IPO candidates. It includes names such as Cohesity, Revolut, Zevs, Dialpad, Filevine, and others. At quarter's end, TPVG held warrant positions in some 106 portfolio companies and equity investments in 52 companies.

Turning to the broader portfolio, our focus is on growing and diversifying the portfolio. We actively added new 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. In addition to AI, this includes other sectors we see as attractive, such as verticalized software, fintech, aerospace and defense, robotics, cybersecurity, and health tech. During the second quarter, we added several new AI companies to our portfolio, including Marvin, Eightfold, 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. 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 and 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 demonstrate alignment with shareholders and position the company to provide long-term shareholder returns as we continue to take steps to increase TPVG's scale, durability, income-generating assets, and its net asset value 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 million of the company's outstanding shares of common stock over the next 12 months in the open market, subject to regulatory and other customary limitations.

Over time, we believe this will translate into an increasing insider ownership of TPVG and provide even greater alignment with our shareholders. 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 2026. 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. 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 4

Thank you, Jim, and good afternoon. Regarding investment portfolio activity during Q2, TriplePoint Capital signed $242 million of term sheets with venture growth stage companies, compared to $188 million of term sheets in Q2 2024 and $315 million in Q1 2025. With regards to new investment allocation to TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp. during the second quarter, TriplePoint Capital allocated $160 million in new commitments with eight companies to TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp., compared to $52 million in Q2 2024 and $77 million in Q1 2025. Seventy-five percent of the portfolio companies we extended commitments to during the quarter were new customers, all of which fall in the artificial intelligence 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 million in debt investments to nine companies, as compared to $39 million to five companies in Q2 2024 and $28 million to five companies in Q1 2025. These funded investments carried a weighted average annualized portfolio yield of 12.3%, down from 13.3% in Q1. During Q2, we had $44 million 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 2023 as a result of new fundings exceeding both prepayment, repayment, and amortization activity within the portfolio by $31 million.

Although we continue to see robust demand for debt financing from venture growth stage companies, as demonstrated by our $114 million of new commitments and $21 million of funding so far in Q3, our quarterly target for new fundings continues to be in the $25 million to $50 million range for Q3 2025, 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. Five portfolio companies with debt outstanding raised $216 million during the quarter, compared to four portfolio companies raising $137 million 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 million, up from Q1 as a result primarily of a $7.3 million 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 billion, up 72%, at a net profit of $1 billion, roughly double from 2023. In July, it was reported that Revolut raised $2 billion of equity at a $75 billion valuation, which bodes well for further potential appreciation of our holdings, as well as does the successful U.S. IPO of CHIME, which operates in a similar sector to Revolut.

During the quarter, one company with a principal balance of $2.1 million was downgraded from Category 2 to Category 3 due to delays in strategic and/or fundraising process, but we believe remains on track. One company, Trubana, a B2B marketplace for restaurants and retailers in Latin America with a principal balance of $11 million, was downgraded from Category 2 to Category 4 as a result of investors walking from a signed 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&A, to be delayed or fall apart despite continued underlying performance by the company and result in its accelerated decline. 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.S. In closing, we remain aligned, disciplined, and mindful of the volatile market environment while executing on our plan for positioning TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp. 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 2

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

Our unfunded investment commitments expire over the next two and a half years, with $20 million expiring in 2025, $88 million expiring in 2026, and $77 million expiring in 2027. The end-of-quarter unfunded commitments represent 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 1.22 times. After netting the cash on our balance sheet, net leverage stood at 1.04 times. Given the cash we have on our balance sheet, the available borrowing base at quarter end, and our target leverage range of 1.3 times to 1.4 times, we believe we have ample funding capacity for our unfunded commitments and for the upcoming refinancing discussed later in my prepared remarks. Turning to our operating results.

For the second quarter, total investment income was $23.3 million, with a portfolio yield of 14.5% as compared to $27.1 million, 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 million, as compared to $14.5 million for the prior year period. These expenses consisted of $6.7 million of interest expense, $3.3 million of base management fees, $629,000 of administrative agreement expenses, and $1.4 million of G&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 second quarter of 2025. In the current quarter, $1.3 million 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 second quarter of 2025 was $11.3 million, or $0.28 per share, as compared to a net investment income of $12.6 million, or $0.33 per share for the second quarter of 2024. For the second quarter of 2025, net realized losses on investments totaled $32,000. During the second quarter of 2024, the company recognized net realized losses on investments of $18.8 million.

Net change in unrealized gains on investments for the second quarter of 2025 was $1.9 million, consisting of $6.8 million of net unrealized gains on the existing warrant and equity portfolio resulting from fair value adjustments and $5.8 million of net unrealized gains from foreign currency adjustments, partially offset by $10.7 million of net unrealized losses on the debt investment portfolio resulting from fair value adjustments. During the second quarter of 2024, the company recognized net unrealized gains on investments of $14.9 million. The company's net realized and unrealized gains were $1.9 million for the second quarter of 2025, compared to net realized and unrealized losses of $4.0 million for the second quarter of 2024.

The company's net increase in net assets resulting from operations for the second quarter of 2025 was $13.2 million, or $0.33 per share, as compared to a net increase in net assets resulting from operations of $8.6 million, or $0.22 per share for the second quarter of 2024. As of June 30, 2025, net asset value was $348.7 million, or $8.65 per share, compared to $347 million, or $8.62 per share as of March 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 million of our $375 million in total fixed-rate notes, maturing in the first quarter of 2026 with a 4.5% fixed coupon. At quarter end, we had estimated spillover income of $42 million, or $1.04 per share. Now, an update on our capital structure and liquidity. As of quarter end, total debt outstanding was $425 million, consisting of $375 million in fixed-rate investment-grade term notes and $50 million drawn on our $300 million floating-rate revolving credit facility. Our fixed-rate term notes have scheduled maturities in March 2026, February 2027, and February 2028.

With $200 million 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. 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 million maturity with a combination of issuing a new tranche of fixed-rate unsecured notes in the first quarter of 2026 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 million 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, and Operator, could you please open the line for questions at this time?

Speaker 5

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw it, please press star, then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question comes from Crispin Love of Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Speaker 0

Thank you. Good afternoon. First, on the outlook for fundings, the second quarter is very strong. Pipeline still seems to be strong, but you're still expecting $25 million to $50 million per quarter, I think, over the near term. Can you just dig into that a little bit more? I understand the third quarter can be a little bit seasonally slower for VC, so I'm wondering if that's a factor, and then just share some thoughts for the fourth quarter in 2026, just based on what you're seeing today.

Speaker 4

Hi, Kristen. It's Sajal. I'll take it. I think it's a combination of lower utilization of historical unfunded commitments, lower upfront utilization of new upfront commitments. I'd say that's the combination. For Q3, a little bit of seasonality, as you said, although we've got a strong start to the quarter so far. For 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 0

Okay, perfect. Just a second question for me. I saw the TriplePoint Capital stock purchase program, definitely good to see there. 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 3

Yeah, I'll take that, Kristen. I think it's mostly ourselves and the board having in mind creating long-term shareholder value. We're always actively considering, assessing really what comes down to capital allocation. Presently, in terms of capital allocation, it's financial flexibility. We need to think about our unfunded commitments. 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, also having the liquidity and the capital. That's right. 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 0

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

Speaker 5

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

Speaker 1

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

Speaker 4

Yeah, I'll take it, Doug. I would say it continues to be robust equity funding, raising activity from portfolio companies, and we're seeing an element of that with the prepayment activity. We're seeing M&A and other activity as well, which is also occurring. 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 we would expect prepayment activity to be more delayed in 2026, if anything, more back half-loaded and into 2027.

Speaker 1

Great. Appreciate that, Sajal. Thanks.

Speaker 5

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 3

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.

Speaker 5

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