Venu takes on $25M of debt to finish its Regent Bank Amphitheater venue

Venu has closed a $25 million financing to complete construction of the Regent Bank Amphitheater, its 12,500-seat venue in Broken Arrow, near Tulsa, Oklahoma. The company describes the deal as single-lender bridge funding, structured as a secured convertible debenture, meant to carry the venue to completion by fall 2026. "Getting the capital structure right matters as much as getting the construction right," said founder, chairman and CEO J.W. Roth.

The deal lands less than five months after Roth told shareholders, following an $86 million equity offering in March, that Venu would not need to raise more: "We do not expect to need to come back to this... We are done." At the time, Venu stock had touched an all-time low of $3.63, and Roth told investors the company was "headed to $50." Venu shares last traded at $2.24 on July 30, the day before the new debenture was priced.

Under the debenture's terms, Venu received $12.5 million in gross proceeds at closing, with a further $12.5 million to follow once an appraisal of the Broken Arrow site is delivered; if that appraisal misses a 14-day window or fails to satisfy the lender, that portion instead repays principal. The debenture converts at the lender's option at a fixed $7.50 a share, more than three times where Venu stock traded ahead of the deal, though a missed payment lets the lender convert at a discount instead, subject to a floor of 44.8 cents. ThinkEquity, which also led Venu's March offering, acted as sole placement agent on the new deal.

It is not the only new debt Venu has taken on since March: in July, the company raised a separate $20 million bridge loan from tax-services firm Ryan, LLC to fund its 20,000-seat Sunset Amphitheater in McKinney, Texas, which Roth said would keep construction moving without diluting shareholders. Regent Bank Amphitheater is one of four amphitheaters Venu has in development, alongside McKinney and El Paso in Texas and a Webster, Texas venue in the greater Houston market, on top of its existing Ford Amphitheater in Colorado Springs.

The debenture is meant to bridge Venu to a Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy financing deal for the Oklahoma venue, which the company expects to close in the third quarter of 2026. Venu has continued expanding its pipeline elsewhere, too: in May, it paid $20 million for a 15-acre site in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where it intends to build another amphitheater, and in October 2025 it struck a content partnership with Primary Wave Music to bring residencies and original productions to its venues.