Mezzanine Financing
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Term
Main definition
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A layer of debt financing that usually has intermediate priority (seniority). For example, mezzanine debt (also called "mez debt") has lower priority than senior debt; and at the same time, mezzanine debt has higher priority than any subordinated debt. For venture-backed companies, a mezzanine round is generally the round of financing that occurs in later stages and is designed to assist a company in reaching an IPO, sale or other liquidity event. See also Bridge Financing. Mezzanine debt has a higher interest rate (and often includes warrants) than senior debt, compensating for its lower priority position and greater bad debt risk as compared with the senior debt. In the capital structure of a company, all debts, obligations and liabilities of a company are senior to its capital stock.
