- Wells Fargo Strategic Capital has hired Credit Suisse’s Inessa Even.
- She will help oversee capital markets and wealth management tech investments.
- Even previously led strategic investments in financial technology for Credit Suisse’s investment bank.
Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, the bank’s principal investing division, has poached an investor from Credit Suisse to handle a growing portfolio, Insider has learned.
Inessa Even, who previously led strategic investments in financial technology for Credit Suisse’s investment bank, joined Wells Fargo Strategic Capital principal technology investments (PTI) group as a director on Monday, according to a spokesperson for the bank.
At Wells Fargo, Even will help lead the bank’s equity investments in private companies working in capital markets and wealth management. Her role will also include sourcing venture-capital and private-equity transactions, and managing Wells Fargo Strategic Capital’s existing portfolio of companies that includes Vestwell, Forge, and Memx, the spokesperson added.
Tom Richardson, a managing director at Wells Fargo Strategic Capital and head of PTI, previously told Insider that the bank was looking to build out a team investing in the technology that underpins Wall Street activities like back-end trading and data analytics.
“Right now capital markets is where we are seeing the most active deal flow,” Richardson said at the time.
Even is no stranger to the importance of partnerships with fintech companies. Speaking at an industry conference in 2019, she said “there are a million ways” for large banks to collaborate with smaller technology providers.
“We’re doing this very actively, and frankly for those smaller firms, for a small fintech firm, to really scale and really be impactful in the market, they need to partner with the banks or with some organization that’s bank-sized,” Even said at the 2019 conference.
At Credit Suisse, Even was tasked with handling the investment bank’s fintech investments and partnerships. Prior to Credit Suisse, she held similar roles in strategy and development at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Even’s hiring comes as Credit Suisse looks to rebuild its roster of talent after seeing a wave of departures in recent months, prompted by twin crises surrounding the collapse of family office Archegos Capital Management and supply-chain finance firm Greensill Capital.
Almost 70 senior staff have left Credit Suisse amid the fallout over Archegos and Greensill, as Insider has reported. The bank has since begun to build out its ranks by hiring across investment banking and trading.