Alexander Koles

Can you tell us a little bit about your background, and how you ended up in your current role?

I run a boutique investment bank and we advise companies on M&A and capital raise transactions in the tech / financial service space.  I was hired out of undergrad to work as an analyst in the early 2000s at Merrill Lynch, then transition to a variety of middle market firms, all in corporate finance.  At the end of my journey at larger firms, I saw an opportunity to “peel away” and begin advising firms individually, which was extremely engaging; hence, founding Evolve Capital seven years ago. 

What is the biggest challenge you face within your role today, and how are you looking to tackle it?

I face two constants challenges:

1. Client acquisition of quality firms.
2. Deployment of technology to keep track of opportunities and deal communications. 

We are tackling it by deploying technology, slowly, across the group.

Biggest success you achieved for 2018/ 2019 so far?

In 2018, we refined our workflows and internal processes, which allows us to focus on the opportunities at hand, and really dug into a niche that plays nicely with our experiences with tech-enabled firms.  From this refinement, 2019 has been a good year of engaging with high quality firms, that fit our experience and sector expertise; plus, we have started to put a chunk of our workflows into the cloud.

What are your Key Objectives for attending the upcoming event?

• 1. Understanding new technologies available in the market to enhance our work.
  2. Meet high quality firms seeking corporate finance transactions (M&A or capital raises).
  3. Further expand our network of investors and strategic buyers.   

What are you currently most inspired about in regards to AI & Emerging Tech for Finance?

The development of AI to help make sense of unstructured data in an investment banking environment is of high interest. 

Join Alexander at AI & Emerging Tech for Finance 2019