Investment bank B. Riley FBR expanded its investment banking division with the addition of Chris Allick, Todd Blankfort, Paul Clausing and David Suddendorf.

All four come from San Francisco-based Hunting Dog Capital, a firm which provides flexible financing for lower middle-market U.S. companies seeking growth.

“I’m thrilled to have Chris, Todd, Paul and David join the B. Riley FBR team,” said Andy Moore, CEO of B. Riley FBR. “With this group’s unique skillset and strong origination network, we can generate new small- and micro-cap opportunities by extending our reach to smaller companies and providing the assistance they need to accomplish their business objectives.”

Allick co-founded Hunting Dog Capital with Blankfort in 2006. He joins B. Riley FBR as managing director and brings with him over 35 years of investment banking industry expertise, primarily focused on special situations credit. Allick had previously founded boutique investment bank Instream Partners in 2000 and co-founded the Corporate Finance Department at Jefferies & Company. He also worked in various roles at Drexel Burnham Lambert and Dean Witter Reynolds.

Blankfort joins B. Riley FBR as managing director. Before his time at Hunting Dog, he served as a managing member of Instream Capital responsible for originating, evaluating, and structuring investment opportunities. He also served in various investment banking roles at UBS Warburg, Veronis Suhler Stevenson and Citicorp Securities.

Clausing joins B. Riley FBR as managing director. Prior to joining Hunting Dog, he held a senior financial operating role at Velti and spent approximately 10 years at Jefferies & Company, assisting technology, media, and telecom clients with debt and equity issuances, mergers and acquisitions, and restructurings valued at over $8.5 billion.

Suddendorf joins B. Riley FBR as vice president. At Hunting Dog Capital, he was involved in all aspects of the firm’s investment activities with a concentration on portfolio company management and monitoring. Prior to that, he worked for Palatine Capital Partners where he analyzed potential debt and equity transactions.