It's amusing how traditional searchers tend to position a shortfall in equity as a prestigious "gap equity" - a rare and imminently closing opportunity to invest in a deal normally reserved for the well-renowned traditional institutions.
I'm always suspicious when there's gap equity. The whole point of traditional search is that the equity is there when you need it! So, unless the deal is too big for the initial investors to cover the whole thing (very rare, they always find a way to fund good deals), there shouldn't be any leftover equity.
A gap typically means that the initial traditional investors have declined to invest despite (or maybe because?) of their close relationship with the searcher and after having had ample time to get a first look. Good luck.
