Thunder

For venture funds

Turn more of your portfolio into liquidity, growth, or a clear decision.

Thunder helps venture funds create actionable paths for portfolio companies that are too valuable to abandon but not yet positioned for a conventional exit or financing. We assess the options, align management and the board, and execute the selected transaction.

How Thunder resolves the options Five possible paths, each a different size, run in to Thunder and resolve into one executable outcome. OPTIONS OUTCOME

Thunder by the Numbers

$1.2B+
Raised by founders after joining Thunder
$200M+
Transaction volume executed
80+
Companies served across 20+ sectors
6,000+
Post-exit founders in our network
2K+
Warm investor connections

The problem

The middle of the portfolio is where time, reserves, and attention accumulate without a clear path.

These are often real businesses with revenue, customers, and strategic value. The issue is not necessarily the company. It is that the next financing, recapitalization, or exit is not obvious.

Thunder provides an independent view of the available paths, what each would require, and which outcomes are realistically executable.

Return multiples across a 25-company venture portfolio Two companies return roughly fifty times capital, eighteen sit just above return of capital, and five are written down, bounded between zero and one times capital. MOIC100×10×5×1×0× 2 · FUND RETURNERS18 · THE MIDDLE5 · WRITTEN DOWN

What we do

Three outcomes we build toward.

Create liquidity

  • Strategic sale
  • Secondary liquidity
  • Recapitalization
  • Founder or investor liquidity
  • Ownership transition

Secure capital

  • Growth equity
  • Structured equity
  • Private credit
  • Acquisition financing
  • Working-capital or asset-backed facilities

Prepare for a transaction

  • Financial normalization
  • Board and management alignment & coaching
  • Positioning transaction narrative
  • Data room preparation
  • Acquisition or divestiture planning

Economics

What it costs the fund.

The fund never writes us a cheque. The portfolio company pays a success fee on close, out of the proceeds of the transaction, and only if a transaction actually closes. That's deliberate: it means we only ever recommend a deal we believe will get done.

Thunder is a registered representative of Finalis Securities LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. That registration is what allows us to facilitate securities transactions and to charge transaction-based fees for them. Thunder X Capital, LLC is not itself a registered broker-dealer, and the two are separate, unaffiliated entities.

  • One-time fee to determine the right path per company and align stakeholders
  • Success fees from 1%-5% in cash or equity, charged through our Finalis registration
  • No invoice to the fund. Your portfolio companies pay

How it works

Four steps, and you can stop after the second.

1 Introduction We get introduced to each other or you reach out to us and schedule an intro call with a partner.
2 Portfolio walk-through We go through the portfolio with you, company by company, and come back with where a transaction is realistically available, and where it isn't.
3 Engagement You introduce us to the ones worth working on. Each company decides for itself whether to engage.
4 Execution We run the process and close the transaction.

See the full process

Track record

When the investors brought us in.

Portfolio companies where an investor or a board made the introduction, and what the available path turned out to be.

Adtech, B2B · Private credit

DigiPeakDigiPeak

A $7.5M credit facility after a major revenue loss

Initial situation
The company had lost $25M of revenue and conventional lenders would not engage with the credit story in front of them.
Decision or constraint
The business needed working capital quickly, without an equity round priced against a damaged trailing year.
Thunder’s role
Thunder cleaned up the financial presentation, repositioned the credit story around the durable revenue base, and approached lenders who underwrite that profile.
Outcome
A $7.5M credit facility closed.
Closed
Consumer, B2C · Growth equity and private credit

EBYEBY

$2M of equity alongside $2M of debt

Initial situation
A consumer brand was preparing a raise that the 2023 consumer funding market was unlikely to support at the size and terms planned.
Decision or constraint
Reset the requirement to what the business actually needed, or spend most of a year discovering the market would not clear the original raise.
Thunder’s role
Thunder reset the expectation, sized the real capital need, and ran a combined equity and debt process against it.
Outcome
$2M of equity plus $2M of debt financing, closed in approximately 45 days.
Closed
AI and robotics, B2B · Pre-seed equity

Lucky RobotsLucky Robots

A $3.5M pre-seed round

Initial situation
An experienced post-exit founder building in AI and robotics, who did not want to run the financing process himself.
Decision or constraint
Raise now with a prepared narrative, or lose founder time to a process during the build.
Thunder’s role
Thunder packaged the narrative, mapped investors whose mandate matched the stage and sector, and ran the outreach.
Outcome
A $3.5M pre-seed, including $1.5M from three investors in under 45 days.
Closed
Consumer, B2C · Buy-side M&A and acquisition financing

Magic MoleculeMagic Molecule

A $30M acquisition of its manufacturer

Initial situation
A growing consumer brand was dependent on a contract manufacturer for both margin and supply continuity.
Decision or constraint
Continue to buy capacity on someone else’s terms, or acquire the manufacturer and own the margin.
Thunder’s role
Thunder structured the transaction and introduced the capital partners who funded it.
Outcome
A $30M acquisition completed.
Closed
SaaS, B2B · Growth buyout and roll-up strategy

EmperiaEmperia

A roll-up strategy instead of an early sale

Initial situation
Investors brought in Thunder to create liquidity options for their position in the business.
Decision or constraint
Whether liquidity was best served by selling the company as it stood, or by changing what the company was first.
Thunder’s role
Investors brought in Thunder to create liquidity options, we identified there was 3-5x growth through a roll-up strategy and helped them execute on pursuing their first transaction.
Outcome
The roll-up strategy was approved by the board and the first transaction is being pursued. No sale process was run.
Board-approved strategy
1 / 5

Why us

What you get that you don't get from a legacy investment bank.

Who we are

Exited founders, not career bankers.

Our partners have raised, scaled, and sold their own companies. When we sit down with one of your CEOs, we've been in that chair, which is usually the difference between a founder engaging and a founder stalling.

How we work

We tell the truth early.

Including when the answer is don't sell, don't raise, or this isn't worth a process. You get a straight read on your portfolio, not a pitch for a mandate.

Track record

We close where others walk away.

DigiPeak had lost $25M of revenue and couldn't get a lender to return a call. We cleaned up the financials, repositioned the business, and closed a $7.5M line of credit.

Infrastructure

A regulated process and a real network.

Transactions are executed through Finalis Securities LLC, member FINRA and SIPC. Thunder X Capital is not a broker-dealer. Behind it sits a network of 2K+ warm investor connections.

6,000+
Post-exit founders in the Thunder network. We call on them deal by deal, so the operator who sits down with your portfolio company has already solved that company's specific problem.

The team

People who’ve done it themselves.

Six partners with four exits, £100M+ deployed, $200M+ in transaction value and two decades of M&A and capital-markets experience between them, backed by a banking, analytical, and legal bench.

Meet the team
  • Jason Kirby
    Jason KirbyManaging Partner
  • St John Coughlan
    St John CoughlanPartner
  • Dipak Patel
    Dipak PatelPartner
  • Gaurav Chawla
    Gaurav ChawlaPartner

The dinner network

We put GPs and LPs in the same room.

Thunder hosts private dinners for venture investors and the family offices and LPs who back them. Small rooms, no panel, no pitch. It's where most of our best work starts.

Where Thunder hosts dinners A dot map of the contiguous United States and the British Isles, marking San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and London. San FranciscoLos AngelesNew YorkLondon

Podcast

$100M Exits

Jason Kirby interviews founders and investors who've been through nine-figure outcomes. If you want to know how we think about liquidity before you talk to us, start there.

  • 100+Founders and investors interviewed
  • $10B+Combined guest exit value
  • 12,000+Subscribers and growing
Listen
$100M Exits podcast cover art

Start here

Start with a conversation about your portfolio.

Thirty minutes. Bring the companies you're not sure what to do with. If there's nothing there, we'll tell you.

Prefer to meet in person first? instead.

Please add your name.
Please add your firm.
Please add a valid work email.
Please choose one.

Confidential. Nothing is shared with your portfolio companies.

Thanks, we'll be in touch.

A Thunder partner will reply within two business days to find a time.