Runway Growth Finance Corp.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Runway Growth Finance Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Quinlan Abel, Assistant Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good evening everyone, and welcome to the Runway Growth Finance conference call for the third quarter ended September 30th, 2024. Joining us on the call today from Runway Growth Finance are David Spreng, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Greg Greifeld, Managing Director, Deputy Chief Investment Officer, and Head of Credit of Runway Growth Capital, and Tom Raderman, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Runway Growth Finance's third quarter 2024 financial results were released just after today's market close and can be accessed from Runway Growth Finance's investor relations website at investors.runwaygrowth.com. We have arranged for a replay of the call to be available on the Runway Growth Finance webpage. During this call, I want to remind you that we may make forward-looking statements based on current expectations. The statements on this call that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and are subject to uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements, including, and without limitation, market conditions caused by uncertainty surrounding interest rates, changing economic conditions, and other factors we identified in our filings with the SEC. Although we believe that the assumptions on which these forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, Any of those assumptions can prove to be inaccurate, and as a result, the forward-looking statements based on those assumptions can be incorrect. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained on this call are made as of the date hereof, and Runway Growth Finance assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or subsequent events. To obtain copies of SEC-related filings, please visit our website. With that, I will turn the call over to David.

Thank you, Quinlan, and thanks everyone for joining us this evening. Tonight, we want to detail our third quarter financial results and share more about the recently announced combination between Runway Growth Capital, the investment advisor to Runway Growth Finance, and BC Partners. We believe this transaction is set to position Runway Growth Finance to deliver consistent steady returns to stockholders. Additionally, on tonight's call, we plan to offer an overview of the investment environment and discuss our outlook heading into 2025. We are pleased with our steady execution in Q3, which demonstrates the underlying strength of our BDC. We executed on attractive investments with new and existing portfolio companies. We completed two investments with new companies, four investments with existing companies and one investment with the joint venture, representing $75.3 million in funded loans. Additionally, Runway delivered total investment income of $36.7 million and net investment income of $15.9 million, or 41 cents per share, which covered our base dividend for the quarter. Subsequent to quarter end, Runway Growth Capital, our investment advisor, entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by BC Partners Credit as a long-term strategic investment. BC Partners Credit is the $8 billion credit arm of BC Partners, an alternative investment firm with over $40 billion in assets under management. Following the transaction, Runway Growth Capital will continue to operate independently and remain the investment advisor to Runway Growth Finance. The current leadership and investment teams will remain in place. We believe our investors and borrowers alike will benefit from Runway Growth Capital's joining BC Partners industry-leading platform due to our combined scale, resources, expertise, and network. Further, we anticipate this will enable us to accelerate originations in our ideal transaction size. We believe that the combination will enhance our capabilities by introducing structured equity preferred investment, asset-based lending, and the ability to operate in new strategies such as equipment leasing. It is also set to strengthen our sponsor relationships through fund finance and other fund-level offerings. We expect both the wider funnel and additional solutions to help our team further diversify our portfolio across both financing products and size of investments. For our shareholders, this translates to more access and exposure to a broader range of investment opportunities designed to enhance value and the potential for attractive risk-adjusted returns. To reiterate, this transaction positions the current leadership of Runway Growth Capital and Runway Growth Finance to execute its long-term vision. We believe it will enable us to strengthen our existing strategy of lending to high quality, late and growth stage companies. For the last several quarters, we've made it clear that we are focused on re-accelerating our portfolio expansion with selectivity and prudence and this focus manifested in several ways throughout the year. Namely, we have established an operational infrastructure that positions runway for the opportunities that we believe to be ahead. Through both our joint venture and our proposed transaction with BC partners, we have meaningfully expanded origination channels, investment solutions, and potential growth strategies for both the advisor and the BDC. This has all been done while consistently driving originations and executing attractive investments that augment our portfolio. As we have said before, these efforts will not necessarily result in linear portfolio expansion quarter to quarter, but we are confident that we are positioning our portfolio and stockholders for long-term returns. With that, I'll turn it over to Greg.