The “2021 Private Capital Markets Report” is now available from the Pepperdine University Graziadio Business School. The report is the result of an annual survey of expected rates of return with respect to private companies. Respondents include senior lenders, asset-based lenders, mezzanine funds, private equity groups, venture capital firms, angel investors, privately held businesses, investment bankers, business brokers, limited partners, and business appraisers.

Range of returns: The survey reveals that loans have the lowest average rates (banks require a median return of 3.3% to 5.5% depending on loan size) while capital obtained from angels has the highest average rates (ranging from a median of 23% for later-stage financing to 43% for seed money). The full report contains details on each type of funding.

A BVWire poll found that 40% of respondents use this survey as part of their toolbox for estimating small-private-company cost of capital. The Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Project (details here) was originally launched in 2007 and was temporarily halted last year due to funding issues. Thanks to the ESOP Association and Employee Ownership Foundation stepping in as sponsors, the research has been able to continue. But, because of an ongoing funding gap, a small fee of $100 will be charged for the report. However, respondents to the 2021 survey will receive the report for free and should have already received coupon codes for this and other reports. The codes will expire at the end of this month, so, if you are planning to use one of them, please do it quickly. The 2021 annual report is available if you click here.