Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) (“Hercules” or the “Company”), the leading specialty financing provider to innovative venture growth, pre-IPO and M&A stage companies backed by leading venture capital firms, today provided its portfolio update for Q3 2016.

“Hercules Capital achieved another solid quarter of new originations and fundings as we continue to build our debt investment portfolio to our desired target of $1.35 billion,” stated Manuel A. Henriquez, chairman and chief executive officer of Hercules. “While Q3 is normally our seasonally softest calendar quarter, our team continued to execute our ‘slow and steady’ growth and origination strategy achieving nearly $180 million of new commitments, including five new innovative venture growth stage technology and life sciences companies, backed by some of the leading venture capital firms in the U.S. The success of our origination team is a reflection of our strong brand and reputation within the venture capital and entrepreneurial communities.”

Henriquez continued, “During the quarter, we also witnessed a healthy pick up in M&A activities with four companies announcing or completing M&A events, further bolstering our growing earnings spillover, as we look to harvest those capital gains for potential future distributions to our shareholders. We were also excited to see one of our portfolio companies, TPI Composites (NASDAQ: TPIC), successfully complete its IPO and become part of the Russell 2000 Index as it had nearly doubled its market capitalization prior to that event. During the quarter we were also able to bolster our liquidity and strengthen our balance sheet, positioning us well for the fourth quarter as we work to convert this strong liquidity into new interest-earning investments in a methodical fashion across our key investment markets driving additional growth in our debt investment portfolio.”