Lazard has launched a new team called Lazard Venture and Growth Banking and appointed Garri Jones and Nick James as managing directors in its UK Investment Banking business.
Jones and Jameswill join in January from Numis, where they ran a successful ventures practice. Lazard’s Venture and Growth Banking team will focus on the private growth equity and venture capital markets, connecting growth businesses with its large global investor base.
The team will work closely with Lazard’s Capital Markets and sector M&A teams as part of an integrated investment banking advisory effort. The team is in place as a response to and in anticipation of a number of market factors that are driving the demand for and supply of private capital. These include more companies across sectors staying private for longer and a significant rise in larger, later-stage deals that the growth equity market is funding. _x000D_
The investor base for such deals is global, highly fragmented and requires intermediation in order to ensure optimal outcomes for all stakeholders. The team will number 10 people in total with nine in place by the end of January 2020. They are a mix of experienced entrepreneurs, bankers, data scientists and engineers.
“The team will build on Lazard’s established public equity franchise and leverage Lazard’s global network to provide companies with greater access to capital markets and financial advisory advice throughout their life cycle. Garri and Nick will bring a different perspective and set of relationships that will broaden the firm’s access to global capital providers and complement and strengthen our global advisory capability,’’ said William Rucker, Lazard UK chairman said.
Lazard’s Venture and Growth Banking team will focus on connecting 100 selected high growth European companies across different sectors and stages of the business life cycle with 400 active global investors.
