Tech Investment Banking

Jason Auerbach is global co-head of investment banking and global head of tech investment banking for SVB Securities. In his role, he leads the company’s technology investment banking strategy and initiatives. With more than 25 years of experience in the industry, Jason has built extensive relationships and is widely known as one of the most prolific bankers in tech, particularly in software and its related sectors. While leading the tech investment banking team, he has completed numerous transactions, including Noregon Systems’ sale to The Hearst Corporation, PassFort’s sale to Moody’s and Evergreen Coast Capital’s acquisition of DreamBox Learning.

Jason joined SVB Securities in 2021. He came from UBS, where he served as the global co-head of technology, media and telecom (TMT) investment banking and sat on the firm’s global management committee. While there, Jason worked on many transactions, including the sale of Ellucian to Blackstone and Vista, the sale of CAMP Systems to The Hearst Corporation, the sale of Innovyze to Autodesk, the sale of Precisely to Clearlake and TA Associates, the sale of Turnitin to Advance Publications and the sale of Ensono to KKR. Earlier in his career, he was the global co-head of TMT mergers and acquisitions for Jefferies LLC.

Jason earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree from Columbia College at Columbia University.

Spencer Alstodt is a Senior Managing Director at SVB Securities focused on Leveraged Finance & Debt Capital Markets for the Technology sector. In his role, Spencer advises, structures, originates and syndicates leveraged loans and bonds and works closely alongside corporate clients and investors, overseeing the execution of transactions, and building relationships among borrowers and investors. With more than 25 years of experience, he has led the origination and syndication of 248 deals for over $128 billion in transaction value. Spencer helped lead SVB Securities’ Tech Investment Banking team to serve as joint bookrunner for Skillz’s $300 million 144A offering of senior notes and co-manager of ZipRecruiter’s $550 million 144A offering of senior notes.

Spencer joined the firm in 2021 from Jefferies LLC where he spent 13 years as a Managing Director in TMT and Industrials Leveraged Capital Markets and sat on the firm’s Debt Review Committee and Debt Commitment Committee. While at Jefferies, he was instrumental in building the leverage finance and capital markets platform, earning #1 league table rankings for sponsor-backed leveraged buyout financings and consecutive years of top honors for total deals and capital raised within the technology sector. Prior to Jefferies, he was a Managing Director at Bear Stearns & Co and began his career at JP Morgan Securities where he worked in the Leveraged Debt Capital Markets Group.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan.

Georgi Balinov is a Senior Managing Director of Tech Investment Banking at SVB Securities focusing on Financial Technology.
 
Georgi joined the firm in 2022 with more than 18 years experience dedicated to the technology industry. He was most recently a Managing Director and Head of Global PayTech Banking at Barclays. Previously, he was Head of FinTech Banking for the Americas at BofA Merrill Lynch where he was responsible for financial technology investment banking coverage across the payments, financial software, capital markets tech and data sectors. His representative advisory transactions include Insight Partners’ investment in NMI, Zego’s sale to Global Payments, Kount’s sale to Equifax, Blackstone’s acquisition of Thomson Reuters F&R, Fiserv’s merger with First Data, Global Payments’ merger with TSYS, SilverLake’s acquisition of Blackhawk, among others. His initial public offering execution experience includes the IPOs for AvidXchange, Remitly, MeridianLink, Riskified, Marqeta, nCino, Bill.com, Alkami, Markit, CBOE, MSCI, Visa, Netspend, Verisk, among others. Georgi has been deeply involved in increasing visibility for the LGBT community in financial services, through involvement in immigration and marriage equality, and through a variety of organizations in his birth country of Bulgaria.

He received his Bachelor of Science from New York University’s Stern Undergraduate College and started his career as an analyst on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.

Bob Casey is a Senior Managing Director of Tech Investment Banking at SVB Securities focusing on the Enterprise Software Sector.
 
Bob joined the firm in 2021 with over 25 years experience dedicated to the technology industry. He has spent the last two decades advising software companies in over $50 billion of M&A, debt financing and equity capital market transactions. His experience extends across the application and infrastructure software sectors. Bob was previously Co-Head of Software Investment Banking at UBS and Head of Software Investment Banking at Suntrust Robinson Humphrey. He has built extensive relationships with industry leaders and financial sponsors. Some of his recent transactions include Noregon Systems, Mavenlink, the sale / financing / acquisition of Cleo, Precisely, Sovos, MRI Software, Mitratech, BowX SPAC/WeWork, Diligent, SiteMinder, MDSL and Jaggaer. Bob began his career at Dean & Company as a strategy consultant advising telecommunications clients.

He earned his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Management from Carnegie Mellon University, and his Master of Business Administration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Business.

William Goodman is a Senior Managing Director of Tech Investment Banking at SVB Securities. In this role, he helps lead the firm’s technology investment banking strategy and initiatives, with a focus on Technology Services & Telecommunications. With 15 years of experience, he has built extensive relationships and has proven expertise in technology services and telecommunications, mergers and acquisitions, leveraged finance, and with financial sponsors.

William joined the firm in 2021 from UBS where he was a Managing Director focused on advising technology services and telecommunications companies. While at UBS, he worked on many transactions including, but not limited to, Cinven’s significant investment in Nitel; the sale of Ensono to KKR; the sale of a stake in Park Place Technologies to Charlesbank; the sale of Secure-24 to NTT; the sale of Great Plains Communications to Grain Management; advised Antin Infrastructure Partners on its acquisition of FirstLight Fiber; advised Apax Partners on its acquisition of Herjavec Group. Prior to this, he was at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. and Redwood Capital Partners.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Philosophy from Northwestern University.

Robert Jackman is a Senior Managing Director of Tech Investment Banking at SVB Securities and is responsible for origination and execution of transactions in the technology sector. He has over 20 years of investment banking experience primarily in the software space and has advised on more than 100 completed transactions, including acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, leveraged buyouts, initial public offerings, spinoffs, and leveraged recapitalizations.

Robert joined the firm in 2021 from UBS where he was a Managing Director in the TMT group . Prior to UBS, Robert helped manage the portfolio of private investments for CYMI, the Mathile family office, and served as an operating executive and CEO of a portfolio company. Previously, he was with Jefferies & Company for over a decade and served as co-head of the TMT mergers and acquisition group. Prior to Jefferies, he was at a predecessor firm, Broadview Associates, that was acquired by Jefferies in 2003. Robert began his career as an M&A lawyer at Sullivan and Cromwell.

He recently advised Noregon Systems on its sale to The Hearst Corporation and PassFort Limited on its sale to Moody’s. Other transactions include advising Insight Partners on their sale of Fenergo, Vista Private Equity on its sale of Regulatory Data Corp to Moodys and Ontario Teachers on its investments in Sovos and Mitratech as well as Marlin Technology Corp and KINS on their recent IPOs. He has sold business to and advised some of the most important strategics in the technology sector including IBM, Roper Industries, Amdocs, Oracle, AT&T, Microsoft, HP and Nokia as well as many of the key private equity investors.

He holds a BA from the University of Southern California, a JD from Columbia Law School and Masters Degrees from the University of Kentucky and Yale Law School.

Nathan Laverriere is a Senior Managing Director of Tech Investment Banking at SVB Securities. In this role, he supports the firm’s technology investment banking strategy and initiatives and leads the Education Technology & Services practice. With over 15 years of experience, he has built extensive relationships across the technology sector and with financial sponsors and has proven expertise in mergers and acquisitions, leveraged finance and equity capital markets. Nathan recently advised Blackstone (NYSE: BX) on its significant investment in Renaissance and Evergreen Coast Capital on its acquisition of DreamBox Learning.

Nathan joined the firm in 2021 from UBS where he was a Managing Director focused on advising technology companies, in particular leading its EdTech practice. While at UBS, he worked on many key transactions including, but not limited to, the sale of Ellucian to Blackstone and Vista Equity; the investment in EAB by BC Partners; the sale of Nearpod to Renaissance Learning; the sale of Turnitin to Advance; the sale of PowerSchool and PeopleAdmin to Onex; the sale of Frontline Education to Thoma Bravo; the IPOs of Coursera, KnowBe4 and PowerSchool and the financings of Anthology and Liaison. Previously, he worked at a technology start-up after acting as a Senior Vice President of Technology Mergers and Acquisitions for Jefferies.

He earned his Bachelor of Science in Finance from Boston College.

Matt Lytle is a Senior Managing Director of Tech Investment Banking at SVB Securities. In this role, he helps lead the firm’s technology investment banking strategy and initiatives, with a focus on Internet, Consumer / Marketing Software and Fintech.

Matt joined the firm in 2021 from Goldman Sachs where he was a Managing Director and Global Co-Head of Internet Investment Banking in the Technology, Media & Telecom group. With over 15 years of experience, he has advised boards and management teams on some of the most innovative and notable technology IPOs, mergers & acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, private placements, and financing transactions. Matt has led over 100 transactions for clients including Alphabet, Dropbox, Glu Mobile, Liftoff, Peloton, Snap, Square, Twitter, Upwork, Vroom, Wayfair, Yahoo and others.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from DePauw University.

Chris Montgomery is a Senior Managing Director of Tech Investment Banking at SVB Securities focusing on the Enterprise Software sector. He recently advised on Clearlake Capital on its acquisition of Quest Software.

Chris joined the firm in 2021 from UBS where he was a Managing Director and senior leader of the software banking team. He began his investment banking career at Jefferies Broadview in New York. After several years he transferred to the firm’s Silicon Valley office where he was instrumental in both rebuilding the office after the financial crisis as well as establishing the firm’s enterprise software leveraged finance business. He has spent his entire investment banking career advising software companies on M&A, debt financing and equity capital market transactions. Over his career he has advised on over 50 M&A transactions and dozens of debt and equity capital market transactions. His experience extends across the application, infrastructure and communications software sectors. 

While at UBS, Chris advised on numerous software transactions including the sale / recapitalization of Precisely, Innovyze, Ivanti, Sectigo, Diligent, Continuum, Corel, BDNA, Camp Systems and LANDesk, the acquisitions of RSA, McAfee Enterprise, FireEye, MobileIron, Pulse Secure, Symantec Web SSL business, Epicor and Planview, as well as capital market transactions for Avast, Sonicwall, Digicert, Ivanti, Barracuda, Forcepoint, Proofpoint, Knowbe4, Quest Software, SentinelOne, Confluent, Dynatrace and Zscaler.  

Chris began his career at Intel Corporation where he was responsible for demand forecasting and supply management for server and workstation CPU sales globally.

He earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Systems Engineering from Stanford University and his Masters of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School. 

Henry Pinnell is a Senior Managing Director of Tech Investment Banking at SVB Securities focused on Financial Technology. In this role, he helps lead the firm’s Fintech investment banking capabilities. With over 15 years of investment banking experience, he has gained extensive experience originating, planning, & executing strategic and financing transactions both in the private and public markets.

Henry joined the firm in 2021 from Barclays Bank PLC where he was most recently a Managing Director in the Investment Banking Division where he led the firms Emerging FinTech franchise. He has built extensive relationships and advised on milestone transactions for industry leading companies, founders and investors such as Affirm, Better, Upstart, Oportun, Pagaya, Earnest, Onemain Financial, CBOE, TMX Group & Options Clearing Corp.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies at the University of Leeds. He serves as a board member of Greenwich House, a charitable organization based in downtown New York City.

Michael Rosso is a Senior Managing Director of Tech Investment Banking at SVB Securities focusing on Technology Private Placements. He has devoted his nearly 25-year investment banking career to driving pre-IPO and private equity capital formation for high growth companies across a broad range of industries.

Michael joined the firm in 2021 after 20 years at UBS Securities and RBC Capital Markets, where he ran the firms’ global efforts in TMT Private Placements and Private Capital Markets, respectively. While at UBS, Michael focused on the Enterprise Software and Consumer Internet subsectors, recently advising PointClickCare on its investment from H&F and Dragoneer, Semios on its investment from Morningside Group and Rapid RTC on its investment from Francisco Partners-owned Keyloop. Michael began his career at Montgomery Securities and Robertson Stephens where he was tasked with financing late-stage companies.

He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Loyola College in Maryland and his Master of Business Administration in Finance from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Prasanth “Burri” Rao-Kathi is a Senior Managing Director at SVB Securities and leads the firm’s Convertibles business.

Prior to joining the firm in 2016, he was the Head of Equity-Linked (Convertibles) Origination in the Equity Capital Markets group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Burri joined the ECM group at Merrill Lynch in 1999 and worked on a number of Merrill Lynch’s landmark convertible innovations over the last 15 years including: Contingent Conversion, Contingent Payment, Bond Hedges, HiPrs, Collateralization, Simultaneous Bond and Stock Repurchases, and Prepaid Forwards in conjunction with new issues. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, he worked in Fixed Income Swaps Marketing and Trading and Corporate Finance/ Mergers and Acquisitions at J.P. Morgan.

He is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Georgetown University with double majors in Finance and International Business and a minor in English. He received his M.B.A. in Finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Scott Silverglate is a Senior Managing Director of Technology Investment Banking at SVB Securities and covers the software sector. With over 20 years of experience, Scott has built extensive relationships and is widely known as one of the most prolific bankers in software, particularly in industrial software and related application software sectors.

Scott joined the firm in 2023 from Goldman Sachs where he previously led the Industrial Software practice. While at Goldman Sachs, Scott worked on many sector defining transactions across the corporate, private equity and venture communities, including, but not limited to, the sale of Plex Systems to Rockwell Automaton; the sale of Seequent to Bentley Systems; IPO of Bentley Systems; the sale of Blue Yonder to Panasonic; the sale of EtQ to Hexagon; Dassault Systèmes‘ acquisition of Medidata; Emerson’s controlling stake in AspenTech. Prior to this, Scott was at Jefferies as a Senior Vice President focused on TMT Mergers & Acquisitions.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Stanford University.

J.T. Stephens is a Senior Managing Director of Tech Investment Banking at SVB Securities and covers the Commerce Enablement, Consumer Internet, and Marketing Software sectors. He helped lead SVB Securities’ Tech Investment Banking team to serve as joint bookrunner for Skillz’s $300 million 144A offering of senior notes and co-manager of ZipRecruiter’s $550 million 144A offering of senior notes.

J.T. joined the firm in 2021 with over 15 years of Investment Banking experience where he previously led the Internet practice at UBS where he focused on strategic advisory, capital raising and leverage finance assignments. He also was a member of the Technology Investment Banking teams at RBC Capital Markets and Robertson Stephens. Earlier in his career, J.T. held leadership roles at Six Apart, a content management platform that catered to SMBs, and Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK), an early pioneer in the eCommerce sector.

Over the course of his banking career, J.T. has advised boards and management teams on over 100 transactions including public equity financings, mergers & acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, private placements, recapitalizations and revolving credit facilities. His corporate clients have included Ancestry.com, Autotrader, Autodata/JD Power, Bazaarvoice, Cision, Cvent, Doordash, Dropbox, eBay, Facebook, Farfetch, GoDaddy, Inspirato, Lyft, LendingTree, Neustar, OEConnection, Roku, Shutterfly, SiteMinder, SkipTheDishes, SurveyMonkey, TheRealReal, Ticketfly, The Trade Desk, Viant, Vivid Seats, WeWork, Wish, Yext and Zynga. J.T. also spends time actively covering the private equity and venture capital communities.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA in Finance, Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Matthew Walsh is a Senior Managing Director and the Head of Tech Equity Capital Markets at SVB Securities. With over 20 years of experience, he has led the origination and execution of hundreds of transactions including some of the most innovative and notable technology IPOs over the last few years.

Matthew joined the firm in 2021 from Credit Suisse where he was a Managing Director and Co-Head of Global Technology, Media & Telecom Equity Capital Markets.  During his time at Credit Suisse, he was instrumental in rebuilding and leading the Credit Suisse technology franchise.  Prior to Credit Suisse Matthew spent over 15 years at Merrill Lynch & Co working in a variety of roles across Equity Capital Markets and Healthcare & Technology Investment Banking, most recently leading the TMT Equity Capital Markets business. He started his career at JP Morgan & Co in New York.

He earned his Bachelor of Science in Finance from Georgetown University.

Xiaoying Zhong is a Senior Managing Director of Technology Investment Banking at SVB Securities where she focuses on technology and technology-enabled services sectors globally.

Xiaoying joined the firm in 2021 from Evercore where she was a Managing Director advising companies across software, media and internet sectors. While at Evercore, Xiaoying worked on a broad range of transactions including, but not limited to, the $2.3B sale of Acxiom Marketing Solutions to The Interpublic Group; the $4.4B divestiture of Epsilon to Publicis Groupe, and the $1.8B sale of Merkle to Dentsu International. Prior to this, she worked in the technology M&A group at Jefferies. Xiaoying began her career as a systems engineer at Analog Devices working on physical layer communications software for mobile phones.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Instrumentation Engineering from Southeast University in China, and a Masters of Business Administration from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Jesse Chasse is a Managing Director on the Tech Equity Capital Markets team at SVB Securities. He partners with Technology Companies, Venture Capitalists and Financial Sponsors to raise capital and position businesses for success in the public markets.

Jesse joined the firm in 2021 from Credit Suisse where he served as a Director of the Technology Equity Capital Markets team. With over a decade of experience in both the firm’s New York and San Francisco offices, he helped originate and execute over 250 book run offerings. Jesse also served as a Global Citizen for the firm, volunteering with an African microfinance organization and traveling to Kenya to develop the organization’s Business Plan and Financial Model.

He holds a Bachelor of Science from College of Charleston.

Mike Morsink is a Managing Director at SVB Securities focused on Leveraged Finance for the Technology sector. In his role, Mike advises on, structures, originates, and syndicates leveraged loans and bonds, and works closely alongside corporate clients and investors while overseeing the execution of transactions and building relationships among borrowers and investors. With over 13 years of experience in leveraged finance and broader debt capital markets, he has led the origination and syndication of a wide range of corporate and sponsor-driven financings.

Mike joined the firm in 2022 from Deutsche Bank where he spent 8 years as a Director leading the West Coast and Technology Leveraged Finance effort. While at Deutsche Bank, he worked on many transactions including, but not limited to, sponsor financings for Veracode, Conga, and Monotype, as well as corporate M&A financings for onsemi, Lumentum, and SS&C. His prior work experience includes positions at Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Cantor Fitzgerald.

He earned his Bachelor of Science from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, and his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Raymond Wu is a Managing Director of Investment Banking at SVB Securities covering Education Technology and Services, as well as the broader software universe. He recently advised Blackstone (NYSE: BX) on its significant investment in Renaissance and Evergreen Coast Capital on its acquisition of DreamBox Learning.

Raymond joined the firm in 2021 from UBS where he was an Executive Director focused on advising technology companies, with a specific focus on education technology. While at UBS, Raymond worked on many transactions including, but not limited to, the sale of Ellucian to Blackstone and Vista Equity; the investment in EAB by BC Partners; the sale of Nearpod to Renaissance Learning; the acquisition of Epicor by CD&R; and the investment in Diligent by Clearlake Capital and Blackstone. His prior work experience includes positions at Stifel, BMO Capital Markets, Battery Ventures and Jefferies.

He earned his B.A. in Applied Math from Harvard University.

Jason Auerbach is global co-head of investment banking and global head of tech investment banking for SVB Securities. In his role, he leads the company’s technology investment banking strategy and initiatives. With more than 25 years of experience in the industry, Jason has built extensive relationships and is widely known as one of the most prolific bankers in tech, particularly in software and its related sectors. While leading the tech investment banking team, he has completed numerous transactions, including Noregon Systems’ sale to The Hearst Corporation, PassFort’s sale to Moody’s and Evergreen Coast Capital’s acquisition of DreamBox Learning.

Jason joined SVB Securities in 2021. He came from UBS, where he served as the global co-head of technology, media and telecom (TMT) investment banking and sat on the firm’s global management committee. While there, Jason worked on many transactions, including the sale of Ellucian to Blackstone and Vista, the sale of CAMP Systems to The Hearst Corporation, the sale of Innovyze to Autodesk, the sale of Precisely to Clearlake and TA Associates, the sale of Turnitin to Advance Publications and the sale of Ensono to KKR. Earlier in his career, he was the global co-head of TMT mergers and acquisitions for Jefferies LLC.

Jason earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree from Columbia College at Columbia University.

Cara Pellicano is a Managing Director and Business Manager of Tech Investment Banking at SVB Securities.

Since joining the firm in 2021, Ms. Pellicano has been responsible for business operations of the Tech Investment Banking franchise including strategic planning, financial and business reporting and analytics, people management and recruiting.

Prior to SVB Securities, Ms. Pellicano was at Jefferies where she most recently was COO, Global Healthcare Investment Banking since 2018. Prior to this, Ms. Pellicano was the CFO of Eurasia Group, a geopolitical consulting and advisory firm, for 9 years and at Neuberger Berman in wealth asset management for 6 years.

Ms. Pellicano earned her B.A. in from Georgetown University and her MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.