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The word for today is…
grubstake (verb) – To supply with funds in return for a promised share of profits.
(noun) – Supplies or funds advanced to a mining prospector or a person starting a business in return for a promised share of the profits.
Source : The Free Dictionary
Etymology : Grubstake is a linguistic nugget that was dug up during the famous California Gold Rush, which began in 1848. Sometime between the first stampede and the early 1860s, when the gold-seekers headed off to Montana, prospectors combined grub (“food”) and stake, meaning “an interest or share in an undertaking.” At first grubstake was a noun, referring to any kind of loan or provisions that could be finagled to make an undertaking possible (with the agreement that the “grubstaker” would get a cut of any profits). By the 1870s, grubstake was also showing up as a verb meaning “to give someone a grubstake,” and, since at least 1900, shortly after the Klondike Gold Rush, it has been applied to other situations in which a generous benefactor comes through with the funds.
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