Western Technology Investment

CEO Maurice Werdegar leads the investment committee. He has run WTI for over four decades and is the primary decision-maker on debt term sheets, alongside a small partnership group. Werdegar's background as a banker and his family's venture capital history inform the firm's long-term, relationship-driven underwriting approach.

WTI is a lender, not a lead equity investor. It provides venture debt in the form of term loans, equipment financing, and working capital lines. The firm receives warrants in borrower companies and may exercise them or take small equity co-investment positions, but it does not price or lead equity rounds.

WTI sources almost exclusively through referrals from top-tier venture capital firms. Because the firm has been active since 1980, its network spans multiple generations of VCs. It rarely, if ever, invests in companies that do not have a known institutional equity sponsor already at the cap table.

WTI structures growth capital term loans, equipment financing, and acquisition financing. It typically targets companies at the late-venture or growth stage that have already raised institutional equity. WTI has also provided restructuring capital and bridge loans to public and pre-public companies.

No. WTI does not take board seats as a condition of its loans. The firm's influence comes from its long-term relationships and the covenants in its debt agreements, not from formal governance roles. This is a significant differentiator from equity venture investors.

WTI will occasionally co-invest small amounts of equity alongside the equity venture rounds of its borrowers, but this is opportunistic and secondary to its core debt business. The firm does not market itself as an equity co-investor and its primary return drivers remain interest income and warrant appreciation.

CEO Maurice Werdegar is the son of David Werdegar, an early venture capitalist and co-founder of Sutter Hill Ventures. Maurice chose to build a venture debt firm rather than join the equity venture tradition, creating a complementary firm that has worked alongside Sutter Hill and many of its peers for decades.