Direct Equity
Covenant represents institutional investors in direct and venture investments at every stage, from SAFEs and convertible notes through seed, early-stage, and late-stage priced rounds. The team regularly advises venture capital funds, university endowments, and other investors on new investments, follow-ons, bridge financings, and pay-to-play and other structured rounds.
On the investor's side
Covenant represents the investor and only the investor, so every review focuses on what matters from that position, including information rights and control concerns.
Every term, benchmarked
Each term is measured against data from the investor's own portfolio as well as the market standard. Alerts flag any departure from terms the investor has accepted before, as well as anything that is off-market.
Efficiency, always
AI makes the process faster, and the resulting time and cost savings are passed on to the client. Issues lists and document drafts are produced with predictability and speed in mind. Those efficiencies are built into the fee from the start.
Pricing predictability
Covenant can always provide a fixed fee and can provide reliable pricing for every round in which the investor is not leading.
Every direct investment,
fully covered
Preferred Stock
Classic “priced rounds” for venture-backed companies. New series of preferred stock at a negotiated valuation with rights, preferences and privileges. Can be Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, B, C, and later with a full suite of investment documents.
Series Seed
Lightweight preferred with simpler documents and fewer investor protections, used for smaller early rounds.
Extensions
To add capital on the same or similar terms as a prior round, often without a full new negotiation.
SAFEs
Non-debt that converts into equity at the next priced round.
Convertible Notes
Debt that converts into equity at a qualified financing. Can be used to bridge between priced rounds.
Venture Debt
Senior loans to VC-backed companies, often paired with warrants and used to extend runway between equity rounds.
Bridge Rounds
Interim financings, often through notes or SAFEs from existing investors, that carry a company to its next round.
Pay-to-play Rounds
Penalize existing investors who don't participate, for example by converting their preferred to common.
Down Rounds, Recapitalizations and Cramdowns
Priced below the prior round's valuation, which triggers anti-dilution adjustments or restructures the cap table, often converting preferred to common or resetting preferences.
Structured Equity
Priced rounds with heightened terms, such as participating preferred, multiple liquidation preferences, ratchets, or redemption rights.
Secondary Transactions
To provide liquidity to existing shareholders. No new capital goes into the company.
Your portfolio,
in one place
Every investment position lives in the Covenant portfolio view, on the same platform as its fund commitments, building a single source of truth for all portfolio data.
Decades of venture financing experience
Jen founded Covenant to rethink the way legal services are delivered to clients and to give investors the legal intelligence that the traditional model has consistently failed to deliver. Previously, Jen served as COO and CLO of WeWork and was a corporate partner at WilmerHale, where she advised on complex transactions and led the New York emerging company practice.
Herman leads Covenant's direct investments and venture financing practice. Previously practiced at O'Melveny & Myers in corporate finance and credit. Herman has represented a variety of venture funds as well as companies in venture financings, giving him a deep understanding of venture transactions and the players that are involved.
Every stage, every structure
Represented an early-stage venture capital firm as lead investor in a $5M Series A financing of an AI-powered customer advocacy platform
Advised family office in a $150M+ Series E financing of a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company
Advised university endowment in a $40M Series D pay-to-play financing of a pediatric telehealth provider
Advised university endowment in a bridge convertible note financing of a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company
Advised university endowment in $300M Series H financing of a fuel-cell technology company
Advised late-stage venture investor in Series C financing of technology-focused bank
Represented venture capital fund in Series A financing and concurrent secondary purchase of common stock in a healthcare AI company
Represented an early-stage venture fund in its follow-on investment in a $2.5M bridge convertible note financing of a healthcare AI company
Represented an early-stage venture capital firm in various SAFE investments in several AI and analytics start-ups
Have a term sheet on your desk?
Submit it for a free benchmarked summary of the key terms and where they sit against market, or start a conversation with our team.