Early Stage financing is usually for companies that have begun their operations, but they may not be at the stage of commercial manufacturing and sales. A company at this stage will generally have a prototype of at least one or more products or services. This stage of business may have its first customer or obtained a very limited amount of early adopters.

Mezzanine is the financing step that occurs to bridge the gap between company expansion and having the company file for an initial public offering or IPO.This stage financing is done often times via debt financing and can range between $5MM-$100MM.

Often this type of financing is used to invest in companies who have achieved very high valuations, or to facilitate leveraged buyouts or LBO, and assist in management takeovers. These institutional investors tend to invest in asset classes consisting of equity securities and debt in companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange.