Investment Evaluation & Underwriting

market sizing • competitive analysis • commercial / financial diligence • modelling • valuation

100+ technology investment and financing opportunities assessed through strategic reviews, outside-in analysis

Across software, cybersecurity, IoT, semiconductors and technology-enabled services, evaluation work has combined outside-in market analysis with management diligence, operating-model review and valuation — testing whether the underlying economics support the proposed investment or financing case.

• Valuation & modelling. Valued technology assets for investment, buy-side M&A and capital-raising decisions, including Univers, tado°, Netwrix, Thales ISH, Dimelo and REstore, using DCF, cash-flow, income-based and option-pricing approaches; built operating, financing, acquisition and synergy models to test growth, margins, capital needs and downside.

• Univers | $50m growth debt. Designed and underwrote a growth-debt solution for a Sequoia-backed platform with a transitional hardware / recurring-software revenue mix, modelling base, upside and downside capital scenarios and incorporating parent-linked downside protection while refining the investment narrative.

• Netwrix | acquisition financing. Assessed the target's market position, recurring-revenue quality, customer concentration, valuation and strategic fit within a sponsor-backed cybersecurity buy-and-build; tested purchase price, synergies, integration costs and leverage against the case for value creation.

Investment Judgement & Decision Materials

challenge assumptions • base / upside / downside • sensitivities • recommendations • IC / committee audiences

Committee-facing recommendations across financing and M&A

The recurring role across financing and corporate-development situations has been to turn an incomplete management narrative into a decision: challenge the plan, identify what matters, test the downside, and present the recommendation in a form a senior committee can act on.

• Santander. Worked across 20+ technology situations spanning growth financing, venture debt and leveraged / acquisition financing; challenged business plans, valuation assumptions and financing structures, and prepared risk-adjusted recommendations for internal credit committees and sponsor-facing teams.

• Univers. Led the risk assessment and committee materials, setting out the valuation-to-debt-service gap, downside sensitivities and structural protections required to make the financing acceptable, and presented the case to the internal committee.

• Netwrix. Translated commercial, valuation and cash-flow analysis into the acquisition-financing underwrite, highlighting value drivers, integration dependencies and the conditions required for the transaction to create rather than dilute value.

• Corporate development. For Leadec and BSH, converted broad strategic objectives into acquisition theses, screening criteria and senior recommendations, linking market attractiveness and capability gaps to specific buy / partner / build decisions.

Technology Business Models & Recurring Revenue

SaaS economics • recurring revenue • product-market fit • growth durability • competitive differentiation

18+ years across technology & technology finance + research across 800+ tech companies

Business-model work has been a consistent thread from St. Gallen research through technology banking and growth-company advisory: understanding where revenue quality, pricing, customer economics and scalability genuinely improve the investment case, and where the narrative runs ahead of the economics.

• St. Gallen. Researched 800+ European technology companies using matched-pair and survival analysis, contributing to the research stream underpinning the Business Model Navigator and building an early foundation in business-model pattern recognition.

• Cognitec | strategic sale to SALTO. Assessed market potential and strategic use cases, developed three acquisition cases from an EOTB analysis, mapped buyer categories and positioned Cognitec toward adjacent access-control ecosystems; five qualified bidders emerged and three advanced to diligence before the sale at approximately 7x ARR.

• REstore | €70m sale to Centrica. Reframed the equity story around the company's software and algorithms, mapping strategic adjacencies across utilities, distributed energy and storage; sold to Centrica for €70m at more than 6x last-financial-year revenue.

• QiO | $10m growth capital. Led the repositioning from a broad horizontal IoT strategy toward data-centre efficiency, refining product-market fit and reframing the equity story around AI-driven infrastructure efficiency for U.S. investors; the repositioned case supported a $10m raise.

• Recurring-revenue transition. Advised tado°, Exasol, Canatu and other growth-stage technology companies on the move from one-time product or project revenue toward more recurring, repeatable or contracted models, with implications for pricing, valuation and financing readiness.

Portfolio Strategy & Value Creation

business-model refinement • turnaround • resource allocation • growth planning • selected M&A

Board-level turnaround + operating reset + buy-and-build

The strongest value-creation work has started with a diagnosis rather than a transaction: which part of the business is still attractive, where resources are being wasted, which capabilities need to be added, and what management needs to change before additional capital should be committed.

• Board advisory | technology-enabled analytics business. Advised management on exiting a structurally challenged segment, redirecting resources toward higher-value transaction and valuation services, and strengthening commercial execution; the initiative is targeting approximately 20–25% revenue improvement.

• Leadec. Helped the German industrial-services group develop a build / partner / buy framework and a 50+ target universe; assessed strategic fit, recurring-revenue potential and acquisition economics, using earn-outs, seller notes and rollover equity to bridge valuation gaps. Two acquisitions were completed, expanding Leadec into IoT-enabled services.

• BSH. Supported BSH in translating smart-home strategy into a 30–40 target priority set that led to the Kitchen Stories acquisition, developing prioritisation criteria and clarifying buy-vs-build boundaries across the deal lifecycle.

Sector Thesis Development & Origination

software • cybersecurity • AI / data • industrial technology • IoT • thematic research

15+ sector mappings | £20m live pipeline | 30+ sponsor coverage

Research has been used as an origination tool rather than standalone market commentary: identify where technology and business models are changing, form a view on the attractive parts of the market, and convert that view into target lists, acquisition ideas and management conversations.

• Santander. Built the bank's first dedicated cybersecurity, IoT and industrial-software coverage from a standing start, combining sector research, market mapping and C-suite relationship development to generate a £20m live opportunity pipeline and expand active sponsor coverage to 30+ firms.

• Bryan Garnier. Co-founded the Smart Industries practice and completed 15+ sector mappings across IoT, Big Data, robotics, SaaS valuation and digitalisation of energy, using research-led origination to build the practice's opportunity pipeline.

• Aidome | 2026. Developed the thesis around enterprise AI governance and control — governance of models, agents, tools and data as AI moves into regulated production workflows — sharpening positioning and the investor universe for an ongoing $10m capital-raise mandate.

Capital Strategy & Structuring

venture capital • growth capital • venture / growth debt • capital structure • fund economics • LP positioning

$500m+ VC / growth capital raised or advised | $50m growth debt | ~€95m tado°

Capital work has covered both company-level financing and fund architecture. The common question has been how much capital the business actually needs, what instrument fits the operating model and risk, and how to preserve runway and strategic flexibility without unnecessary dilution or balance-sheet stress.

• Company capital formation. Advised technology companies across venture, growth-equity and structured-capital raises, helping management define funding requirements, investor positioning and financing structures around growth, dilution, runway and future optionality.

• Univers. Structured a $50m growth-debt solution with parent-linked downside protection after conventional unsecured debt did not adequately reflect the company's cash-flow and valuation risk.

• tado°. Advised shareholders across two private placements totalling approximately €95m, maintaining a coherent equity story, valuation framework and investor strategy as the business and funding requirements evolved.

• Fund strategy. Translated venture and growth / private-credit concepts into portfolio construction, deployment pace, ticket sizing, reserve strategy, target returns, concentration limits, fund economics and LP segmentation for a UK venture and growth/private-credit fund mandate.

Private Capital & Investor Perspective

direct investment evaluation • underwriting • portfolio construction • investment readiness • founder challenge

Direct technology evaluation + investor / board roles

Recent work has moved the profile closer to the private-capital side of the table: evaluating direct technology opportunities for private investors, shaping fund strategy, and challenging founders on whether the business model, capital plan and valuation are ready for institutional capital.

• Anchorpoint. Evaluates direct technology and deep-tech opportunities for private investors across market attractiveness, competitive position, business-model quality, recurring-revenue dynamics, capital requirements, valuation and downside risk, converting diligence into investment recommendations.

• Fund / structured-capital work. Contributes to investment strategy, opportunity evaluation, underwriting, portfolio construction and capital formation for growth-stage and structured-capital strategies.

• Investment jury / startup selection. Evaluates AI and technology companies for European investor programmes, challenging market attractiveness, technology differentiation, scalability and investment readiness alongside venture investors.

M&A & Corporate Development

buy-side • sell-side • target screening • strategic adjacency • transaction positioning

24 M&A-related mandates across the deal sheet

M&A experience spans both sides of the investment decision: repositioning assets so buyers can see the strategic value, and helping corporates decide which capabilities should be acquired, at what price and with what structure.

• Cognitec. Repositioned a slowing licence-led facial-recognition company toward access-management and recurring-revenue use cases ahead of its sale to SALTO Systems at approximately 7x ARR.

• REstore. Separated the software/IP economics from services and trading, reframed the company as a grid-flexibility technology platform, and supported a €70m sale to Centrica at more than 6x last-financial-year revenue.

• Leadec / BSH. Built acquisition theses, screening criteria and target universes for technology-enabled capability acquisitions, including a 50+ Leadec target set and a 30–40 priority BSH universe supporting the Kitchen Stories acquisition.

• Selected realised outcomes. Additional sell-side transactions include Dimelo to RingCentral, 21Net to Alstom, Visedo to Danfoss and Qelp to Sykes, alongside growth-capital and buy-side situations across software, IoT, industrial technology and cybersecurity.

Leadership & Cross-Functional Execution

platform building • senior stakeholders • team leadership • advisers / lenders / management • execution discipline

Built franchises from zero | 8-person team | 15+ juniors coached

The operating pattern has been to build capability as well as execute individual transactions: create sector coverage, establish repeatable processes, coach teams, and coordinate management, investors, lenders and advisers through complex cross-border decisions.

• Saxenhammer. Built the mid-market TMT advisory platform and an eight-person team from a standing start; the practice completed 13 technology transactions while standardised execution processes strengthened transaction discipline and completion consistency.

• Santander. Joined as the third member of a newly formed technology investment-banking team; sourced seven technology transactions and executed five financing / strategic situations across multiple regions.

• Bryan Garnier. Led cross-border deal teams of up to five and coached 15+ junior bankers across valuation, modelling, diligence and execution while helping scale the Smart Industries franchise.

• Senior stakeholder execution. Worked directly with founders, CEOs, CFOs, boards, corporate-development teams, financial sponsors, lenders, lawyers and diligence providers, translating detailed analysis into decisions executed under transaction and timing pressure.