Deerpath Capital Management, a provider of cash-flow based senior debt financing to lower middle-market companies across North America, opened its latest international office in Tokyo. The Tokyo office will be led by Taichiro “Tai” Watanabe, who joined Deerpath as senior vice president and the first Japan-based member of Deerpath’s investor partnerships team.
In this new role, Watanabe will be responsible for developing and maintaining Deerpath’s relationships primarily with investors in Japan and selectively across other areas of Asia. The announcement comes less than two years after Deerpath launched offices in London, Australia and South Korea.
“Tai’s arrival, and Deerpath’s physical expansion into Japan, are a response to heightened demand for performing private credit products across our growing network of institutional and private wealth investors in the APAC region,” Antonella Napolitano, global head of investor relations and capital formation at Deerpath, said. “These LPs are attracted to our core strategy of conservative financing to sponsor-backed businesses within the U.S. lower middle market. This part of the market has substantial lender protections in comparison to other parts of the middle market combined with strong, steady and uncorrelated financial returns.”
Watanabe has more than 15 years of business development and investment management experience. Most recently, he was head of sales responsible for business development for Japan at Fullerton Fund Management, a company owned by Temasek Holdings. Prior to that, Watanabe served as associate director of distribution at Federated Hermes International. He has also held roles on the Japan FX and derivatives operations team at JPMorgan Chase as well as the global commodities middle office of Barclays Investment Bank, both based in Singapore.
