If you're like most harried executives at startups, the answer certainly is the former. A commercial bank with expertise in merchant and investment banking can provide you with much more than deposit accounts and lines of credit. These banks can help you raise private equity and debt capital, evaluate potential mergers and acquisitions and choose mezzanine stage financing strategy.
Young companies find the road is much smoother with a knowledgeable and dependable partner.
Private Placement One of the under-appreciated sources of financing, private placements, can be an ideal vehicle for companies that are ready to step up to a new level. Private placements raise capital from a large pool of capital including angels, venture capital firms, corporate and institutional investors without the lengthy offering period and regulatory requirements associated with a public offering. With so many entrepreneurs blinded by the chase for an initial public offering, mergers and acquisitions have become a forgotten method for achieving much of what an IPO can accomplish. The truth is, an IPO may not be the best approach to increase a company's liquidity and valuation. For example, in the very tight electronic design automation market, which is able to support just a handful of public companies, most growing firms don't go the IPO route, but are acquired instead.