11 Funding Request

Funding Request and Use of Funds Skill

Use When

• Use when translating the business case into a specific ask to a bank, investor, DFI, or other capital provider.
• Use when the plan must show exact use of funds, repayment logic, ownership consequences, or term logic.
• Use when the funding ask needs to align tightly with implementation and financial projections.

Do Not Use When

• Do not use before the financial model and implementation budget are stable enough to support a real ask.
• Do not use a debt-style ask for an equity case or vice versa.
• Do not use a generic funding paragraph when the audience expects a structured ask.

Required Inputs

• Funder type and desired instrument
• Final or near-final projections, DSCR logic, and implementation budget
• Collateral, equity contribution, cap-table, or valuation information as relevant
• Milestones funded and intended next step for the capital provider

Workflow

1. Identify the capital provider and the funding instrument.
2. Tie the ask to the implementation plan and the financial model.
3. Build the use-of-funds table at line-item level.
4. For debt, show repayment source, DSCR, and collateral logic.
5. For equity or blended capital, show valuation, dilution, milestone, and exit logic.
6. Reconcile the funding section against appendices, financials, and timelines.

Quality Bar

• The ask is exact, not vague.
• The use of funds is traceable to real execution needs.
• Debt asks are serviceable and equity asks are valuation-defensible.
• The section reads like a real capital request, not a placeholder.

Anti-Patterns

• Asking for a rounded headline amount with no line-item logic.
• Mixing debt and equity language without clarifying the instrument.
• Presenting valuation as negotiation posture instead of analytical output.
• Leaving the capital provider to infer how the money will be used.

Outputs

• Funding request section
• Use-of-funds table
• Debt or equity logic tailored to the audience
• Any unresolved term, collateral, or valuation issues

Generate the section that tells lenders or investors exactly what is being requested, how it will be used, and why the request is financeable.

Funder Type Identification

Identify the primary funder first:

Default for Uganda SME plans: commercial bank or DFI.

Bank Loan Mode

Required Elements

1. Exact funding amount in UGX
2. Facility type: term loan, working-capital line, overdraft, asset finance, or invoice finance
3. Itemised use of funds tied exactly to Section 13 implementation budget
4. Proposed term, grace period, and repayment source
5. DSCR from Section 10 projections
6. Owner equity contribution
7. Collateral and coverage ratio
8. Security documents available
9. Compensating factors if collateral is weak

Bank Use-of-Funds Format

DSCR Statement

State:

• EBITDA or cash available for debt service
• annual debt service
• DSCR result
• whether the plan clears the 1.25x threshold
• mitigation if Year 1 is weak

Collateral Statement

State:

• asset type
• description and ownership
• estimated value
• valuation basis
• coverage ratio
• documents available

Equity Investor Mode

Required Elements

1. Exact amount being raised
2. Instrument type: equity, convertible note, SAFE, or combination
3. Detailed use of funds
4. Current cap table
5. Valuation basis
6. Investment terms
7. Milestones funded
8. Runway created
9. Future funding needs
10. Exit strategy

Mandatory Valuation Step

For every equity, convertible, SAFE, strategic-investor, acquisition, or blended-finance case, run meta-valuation before finalising this section.

Minimum outputs required from meta-valuation:

• valuation purpose and audience
• base, upside, and downside range
• method used and why it fits the stage
• implied pre-money and post-money values
• ownership / dilution consequence
• sanity-check commentary on comparables and assumptions

Equity Use-of-Funds Format

Generation Process

1. Identify the funder type
2. For debt: gather amount, purpose, term, collateral, and owner contribution
3. For equity: gather amount, instrument, current cap table, and milestone target
4. Build the detailed use-of-funds table and tie it to Section 13
5. For debt: calculate DSCR and collateral coverage
6. For equity: calculate runway, define terms, and state exit logic
7. For equity or blended capital: integrate meta-valuation output into the ask and terms
8. Verify consistency against meta-bankability-scoring/references/consistency-audit.md
9. Where material technology, systems, or expansion spend is requested, include a short business-case rationale: problem solved, option chosen, expected benefit, timing, and downside controls

Quality Criteria

• Ask is specific and single-point, not a range
• Use of funds is line-item based and totals correctly
• Use of funds aligns with implementation timing
• For bank loans: DSCR >= 1.25x, collateral >= 125%, repayment source identified
• For bank loans: run meta-bankability-scoring before submission
• For equity: runway reaches the next major milestone and exit logic is realistic
• For equity: valuation comes from meta-valuation, not unsupported negotiation positioning
• Material technology and expansion line items are justified by execution logic and incremental benefit, not by vague modernisation language

References

• ../meta-valuation/SKILL.md - required for all equity, convertible, SAFE, strategic-investor, and blended-finance asks
• references/business-valuation-methods.md - repo-specific valuation methods and East Africa adjustments
• references/equity-term-sheets.md - term-sheet mechanics and cap-table implications
• references/credit-assessment-frameworks.md - 5 Cs and CAMPARI
• references/women-financing-uganda.md - collateral constraints and alternative pathways
• references/esmp-template.md - safeguards and ESMP requirements for DFI cases
• references/uganda-banking-sector-2025.md - lending context and pricing benchmarks
• references/uganda-banking-loan-framework.md - Uganda bank underwriting practice
• references/uganda-financial-sector-regulatory.md - financing-channel selection and compliance
• references/msme-financing-options-ea.md - financing fit by stage and business maturity
• references/africa-infrastructure-financing.md - relevant for infrastructure, PPP, and blended-finance cases
• ../book-extractions/haines-how-to-create-a-business-case-extraction.md - use when the ask includes a major system, automation, capacity, or market-entry investment that needs clearer option logic and incremental benefits
• meta-bankability-scoring/SKILL.md - bank readiness scoring and consistency checks
• meta-due-diligence/SKILL.md - DD readiness before investor or DFI outreach
• meta-presentation-design/SKILL.md - ask-slide and use-of-funds presentation standards
• saas-agent-funding-stage-playbook/SKILL.md - agent-business funding playbook by stage (pre-seed → growth); agent-specialist / vertical AI / sovereign-AI / DFI investor archetypes; agent-specific use-of-proceeds shape and milestone breakpoints
• saas-agent-investor-narrative-on-sla/SKILL.md - SLA narrative for fundraising (confidence-builder vs liability question); peer benchmarks; SLA-as-moat positioning; pitch-deck slide; data-room SLA section; quarterly investor-update SLA block; FAQ rebuttal library

July 2026 Portable Contract

Required Inputs

Outputs

Evidence Produced

Capability and Permission Boundaries

For 11 funding request, the controlling focus is funding quantum, instrument fit, use of funds, repayment or return logic, and financing conditions. This skill may analyse financing options and draft the ask; it may not solicit investors, submit applications, negotiate terms, value securities, or bind the client without explicit authority and professional review. Its normal mode is read-only analysis and drafting. Any mutation, external communication, spending, certification, or professional conclusion outside that boundary requires explicit authority and must remain traceable to the approving role.

Degraded Mode

For 11 funding request, loss of evidence about funding quantum, instrument fit, use of funds, repayment or return logic, and financing conditions activates degraded mode. If the controlling 11 funding request evidence is unavailable, the same boundary applies. When the funding gap, uses, repayment capacity, dilution effect, or stage evidence is unavailable, return a financing-readiness gap note and withhold the amount or instrument recommendation. Return the verified subset, label the affected decision qualified or not assessed, explain the downstream consequence, and state the smallest evidence request or authorised action that permits recovery. Do not convert the missing check into a pass.

Decision Rules

Workflow

1. Define the exact 11 funding request decision, intended reader, jurisdiction, business stage, and permission boundary.
2. Collect reconciled funding need, use-of-funds schedule, financing capacity, traction evidence, milestones, and investor or lender criteria and map each material conclusion to its source; stop the affected conclusion when an input could change it.
3. Apply the specialist methods and directly linked references already contained in this skill, retaining its domain thresholds, calculations, and Uganda or East Africa context where applicable.
4. Compare the credible alternatives, test the countercase and failure path, and apply the decision table rather than selecting a template default.
5. Produce audience-specific funding request with instrument, uses, milestones, and repayment or return logic with the evidence, exception, and handoff records; reconcile every shared assumption with its owning section.
6. Run the section quality checks, applicable finance or professional review, and anti-slop gate. If a gate fails, correct the evidence or decision and return to the responsible step.

Quality Standards

• Audience-specific funding request with instrument, uses, milestones, and repayment or return logic must answer a real decision for the named bank, investor, DFI, grant, board, or strategic-partner reader.
• Ask-to-use reconciliation, financing-option decision record, milestone release logic, and caveat register must be source-linked, dated where facts can change, and sufficient for another reviewer to reproduce the conclusion.
• The section exposes its countercase, stop condition, recovery action, and effect on neighbouring sections.
• No unavailable source, calculation, tool, or professional review is reported as passed; finance and statutory judgements follow the governing doctrine.
• Language remains specific to 11 funding request, uses British English naturally, and passes the repository anti-slop gate without promotional filler.

Anti-Patterns

• In 11 funding request, treating an unavailable reconciled funding need, use-of-funds schedule, financing capacity, traction evidence, milestones, and investor or lender criteria as confirmed. Correction: qualify the affected conclusion and issue the named evidence request.
• Producing audience-specific funding request with instrument, uses, milestones, and repayment or return logic that restates the brief but makes no choice. Correction: record the choice, rejected alternative, rationale, countercase, and implication.
• Ignoring a conflicting upstream assumption. Correction: return it to its owning section and resume only from a reconciled version.
• Reporting an unavailable check as passed. Correction: mark it not assessed and narrow the release state.
• Claiming compliance, assurance, bankability, or investor readiness from narrative quality. Correction: run the applicable gate and retain its evidence.
• Copying the worked example into a client plan. Correction: use the method only and replace every fact with verified engagement evidence.

Worked Example

A profitable business requests equipment debt but allocates part of the loan to speculative product research. Separate financeable assets from uncertain R&D and match each use to an affordable instrument.

References

• Use the verified project evidence register and the owning upstream pipeline section for 11 funding request; no local deep-dive reference is declared.
• For 11 funding request claims involving money, tax, grants, reserves, revenue, cost, valuation, or financial statements, apply the Chwezi finance doctrine and record the required professional-review state; illustrative figures never become client facts.