First National Capital's $12 million two-stage bridge loan lets a PE-backed colocation provider order long-lead AI infrastructure equipment while a broader refinancing remains in process.
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First National Capital Corporation structured a $12 million equipment financing in two stages for a private equity-backed colocation provider expanding its AI and GPU compute capacity. The first $6 million funded immediately as a bridge tranche, allowing the client to place orders for UPS systems, chillers, power distribution units, and battery equipment. The remaining $6 million will convert to a standard equipment loan after the company completes a broader refinancing of its existing credit facility.
The timing conflict was the central problem. Equipment procurement could not wait for the refinancing to close without jeopardizing the deployment schedule. Funding the equipment from working capital or the existing facility would have consumed liquidity and covenant headroom during a critical expansion period. The client had a single-tenant commitment and a fixed deployment deadline.
"In data centers, the procurement slot is the deadline," said Philip Gronnerud, SVP and Co-founder of First National Capital. "The equipment market does not care what stage a company's refinancing is in. This client had contracted demand, existing facilities, and a tenant waiting – what they needed was capital that arrived on the schedule the equipment imposed rather than the schedule the credit markets preferred."
The transaction reflects a broader constraint reshaping data center development. Industry analysis has estimated that a substantial share of planned 2026 U.S. data center capacity is at risk of delay or cancellation because long-lead electrical equipment cannot be delivered on schedule – a constraint driven by manufacturing capacity rather than capital availability. First National has published a companion analysis of the issue, "The Order Window Does Not Wait for Your Refinancing," examining why equipment procurement timing has become the binding constraint on AI infrastructure deployment.
The client is a regional colocation and hybrid data center services provider that identified an expansion opportunity driven by accelerating enterprise demand for high-density colocation capable of supporting AI workloads. The build-out required substantial near-term capital for infrastructure items subject to extended vendor lead times and upfront deposits at the point of order.
First National Capital has completed more than $4.5 billion in funding of equipment, technology, aircraft, and capital projects for mid-sized and large companies across North America, with transaction capacity from $500,000 to $250 million.
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