Standard bonds for European mid-caps · €20–100 million · Munich

Companies need funding. Investors need companies.

A standard bond of €20–100 million for established, non-listed European companies.

  • Interest from day one, the principal at maturity.
  • The company keeps its shares and its bank.
  • Investors decide and price. Money flows directly to the company.
Talk to the team

What we do

Screens. Matches. Arranges.

The company

Brings its plan and its figures. Issues the bond.

Screens

Companies against hard criteria, every fact checked at the source.

Matches

Each company with investors whose criteria it fits.

Arranges

One standard bond, from start to closing.

The investors

Read the fact file. Decide on their own criteria. Hold the bond.

The money goes from the investors straight to the company, never via Vanilla.

The problem, and for whom

Both sides of the gap.

The company

Established, non-listed, mostly family-owned. Needs €20–100 million. Four routes, all closed:

The bankLends what its collateral covers.
A listed bondDoes not pay at this size.
Private debtFollows private-equity owners.
A share issueDilutes control.

The investor

A clear mandate, capital still to deploy. What arrives:

Too many proposalsFew that fit.
Each in a different formEach costs analysis time.

Bonds in this format exist. Almost none below €50 million.

Nordic-format euro bonds from issuers outside the Nordics, ten years to August 2026, by size. 45 bonds, €6.5 billion.

Gold: where the need sits. Vanilla brings the format there.

3 of 45bonds between €20 and 50 million
22,000European companies able to borrow €20m or more
€150–250bna year of €20–100m financings, our estimate
€5bncommitted to mid-cap debt, not yet lent
European savings too little European companies

“Europe saves more than the US, yet too little reaches its companies.”

Mario Draghi, The future of European competitiveness, 2024

Our segment is one piece of that: €20–100 million per company.

Sources: own dataset, verified at source; Destatis and CBS; own register of 124 funds and programmes.

Why not today

Four reasons it does not happen. Vanilla's answer to each.

TodayWith Vanilla

Bespoke work

  • Every financing built from scratch, per lender.
  • Costs as much at €30m as at €300m.

One standard bond

  • Common terms, one format.
  • No new design per deal.

Finding the companies

  • Funds lend to companies a private-equity owner brings.
  • A family company has nobody who does that.

Sourcing with a first check

  • Via advisers, CFOs, banks and a portal.
  • No adviser is replaced.

A fund sorts instead of decides

  • Many proposals, few that fit, all in different forms.
  • Companies apply to funds that never fit.

Pre-qualified proposals

  • On the fund's own criteria, in its format.
  • Ready to decide on. Both sides save time.

No first decision

  • Nobody commits first or sets the terms.
  • For €30m from funds, nobody arranges it. The deal never starts.

Anchors go first

  • Two or three funds reserve capacity upfront.
  • In return: first look, the price, most of each bond.

How it runs

Anchors first. Ten weeks, every bond.

  1. SourcingDays
    • Via adviser, bank or directly.
    • First check: €50–500m revenue, three audited years, debt ≤ 3.5× EBITDA, interest cover ≥ 2.5×.
  2. Fact fileWeeks 1–4
    • The company's plan in the anchors' format, every fact with its source.
    • The CFO confirms. Capital structure settled before launch.
  3. Anchor decisionWeeks 5–6
    • Capacity reserved upfront.
    • Binding ticket in ten working days.
  4. One standard bondWeeks 7–10
    • Co-investors join on the same terms.
    • Issued only when fully covered.
  5. After closingYears 1–5
    • Nordic Trustee tests the covenants each quarter.
    • The company reports quarterly and repays at maturity.
Anchor 1 · €7 million Anchor 2 · €7 million Anchor 3 · €7 million Co-investor 1 Co-investor 2 Co-investor 3 Co-investor 4 €7m €7m €7m €9m €30m one bond

One deal, illustrative: how a €30 million bond is filled

  • Three anchors · €7m each · 70%
  • Four co-investors · €9m · 30%
  • Five years, Euribor + 600bp.
  • Anchors commit before the mandate; co-investors take the rest.
  • €690,000 (2.3%) paid once by the company, at closing.

The bond, the licence, the fee

Several commitments. One financing.

Size and term

€20–100mper bond
3–5 yearsrepaid at the end
Euribor + spreadfloating rate

Form

€100,000pieces, each with an ISIN
Professional investorsonly, under MiFID. No prospectus.
Transferablein the investor's own securities account. Liquidity depends on demand.

Why Nordic

The European format for unrated companies.

  • Standard documents
  • One trustee for all holders
  • No rating needed
  • Weeks, not months

€1.8bn issued by German-speaking companies in 2025.

The rules

A licensed firm is arranger of record. Own licence planned for 2028.

  • Gives no rating
  • Gives no advice
  • Holds no client money
  • Takes no own position

How we earn

2.0–2.5%of the amount, paid by the company at closing. Only when the bond is issued: €600–750k on €30m.

What each bond adds

  • A proven format
  • An anchor relationship
  • A standard
  • A reference

What we build first · in beta

The fact file.

One checked fact file in the anchors' format. Pass or fail on the fund's own criteria, no score. The CFO confirms, the anchor decides.

  1. AI draftsEvery fact with source and page.
  2. Analysts fill gapsTwo work independently. Differences are flagged.
  3. A professional signsEvery fact checked against its source. Checked, never audited.
Fact file · illustrative Drafting from the company's documentsTwo analysts checkingSigned
FactValueSourceStatus
Revenue 2025€142mAnnual report 2025, p. 12AI draftChecked · 2 analystsSigned
EBITDA 2025€18.4mAnnual report 2025, p. 14AI draftChecked · 2 analystsSigned
Net debt / EBITDA2.2×Derived, p. 41 and p. 14AI draftChecked · 2 analystsSigned
Capex plan 2026€12m €15mBudget 2026, p. 3 · board minutes, p. 2AI draftDifference flagged · resolvedSigned
Interest cover4.1×Derived, p. 16 and p. 14AI draftChecked · 2 analystsSigned

✓ Signed · a named credit professional · every fact checked against its source.

9 in 10facts right in the AI draft (target)
4 weeksto a signed fact file (target)
10 daysto the anchor's answer (target)

Built on a review of more than a hundred peer-reviewed studies. The example above is fictitious.

Where we stand

Done, next, and what we are looking for.

Done

  • 45-bond dataset, verified at source.
  • Register of 124 funds and programmes.
  • Admission criteria v1.0, fact-file format.
  • Fact-file engine in beta.
  • Interviews on both sides.

Next

  1. Dec 2026Anchors signed: letters of intent.
  2. Jan 2027Fact-file engine in the anchors' format.
  3. Jun 2027A licensed partner.
  4. Nov 2027First bonds.
  5. End 2028Own licence.

Looking for

AnchorsTwo or three mid-cap funds: capacity and a letter of intent.
IntroductionsFive CFOs, three family offices, one trial fact file.
ScrutinyA credit professional and a securities lawyer to check the first files.

The pitch

Two minutes, from the team.

▶ Play — 2:20

Who we are

The team.

Sam Lakmaker

Sam Lakmaker

Structure · Licence · Economics

DCM origination, UniCredit, where the idea started.

BSc Econometrics, Erasmus.
MSc Financial and Insurance Mathematics, LMU (2026).

sam@vanillabonds.com
Finn Goerlich

Finn Goerlich

Product · AI engineering

Visiting Associate, Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Screens pitches for an angel syndicate.

BSc Physics, LMU (2027).

finn@vanillabonds.com
Sebastian Aardoom

Sebastian Aardoom

Financial analysis

Business Development, STC Bank, Riyadh.
Business consultant, ADDVERY, Prague.

BBA, EU Business School Munich.
BA (Hons) Business Management, University of Derby.

sebastian@vanillabonds.com

The demo

See the platform.

The platform as both sides see it. The company uploads its documents, answers the reviewer and confirms the figures. Anchors see every opportunity first and commit; co-investors join on the same terms once they have. Three fictitious companies.

Open the platform