Hercules Technology Growth Capital announced Tuesday that the 8 million shares it publicly offered last week raised approximately $108 million.

Hercules provides debt and equity financing to technology and life science companies. The 8 million shares will be delivered on June 8.

The Palo Alto, Calif-based company said the net proceeds from the sale of the shares will be used to reduce debt and fund new and existing investments.

Hercules also granted the underwriters a 30-day overallotment option to purchase an additional 1.2 million shares.

The company simultaneously announced an alliance with Market Bridges to offer lending opportunities to Israeli companies in the technology and life science fields. Market Bridges is a financial services and business development firm that brings together Israeli companies with international markets.

Scott Harvey, chief legal officer and secretary for Hercules, said that the alliance with Market Bridges is not the first time the company has invested abroad and it is interested in finding other markets to develop. “We have made three investments up in Canada and we have made a couple of investments in Israel before, but they were just informal,” Harvey said. “What we are trying to do is get more formal with it and establish more relationships over there with folks.”

Manuel A. Henriquez, founder and chief executive officer of Hercules, said that Israel represents a growing market opportunity for leading technology and life science companies. “In the past decade, Israel has become a center for emerging technologies and Hercules has enjoyed success working with some of the region’s venture capital firms,” said Henriquez.

Shares of Hercules dropped 38 cents, or 2.7%, to close at $13.49 Tuesday. Harvey said that it's not unusual to see shares of building development corporations get reduced in price just before they issue shares in an offering.

“Because a building development corporation is required to distribute its earnings each quarter, investors often have concerns about the short term dilutive effect that the stock offerings would have on the stock price,” he said. “This is combined with the fact that large blocks of stock generally will sell at a slight discount to the quoted market price.”

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Ruthie Ackerman, 06.05.07, 7:20 PM ET