A new player in Silicon Valley dealmaking is snapping up tech bankers

tAP Images

There’s a new player in Silicon Valley dealmaking.

Tokyo-based Mizuho has been expanding its investment banking team in the US this year, and has just added two new names to its roster in tech banking.

John Jansen has joined the firm as head of technology M&A banking, and Sugeet Madan has joined as a managing director in technology coverage banking. They join Matt Upton, who has signed on as head of software investment banking, in making the move to the Japanese bank.

Jansen and Upton will report to Rich Gallivan, head of tech, media, and telecom (TMT) banking, and focus on winning business on strategic transactions, including global M&A and capital raising deals. Madan will report to Avrum Spiegel, head of technology banking coverage, with a focus on overall client relationship management.

Jansen was previously a director at RBC Capital Markets and worked on Raytheon’s $1.9 billion acquisition of Websense, Ticketfly’s sale to Pandora, and Microsemi’s acquisition of Vitesse Semiconductor. Upton was a managing director at Nomura before joining Mizuho and led the Americas technology investment banking team with a focus on software. Madan joins Mizuho from SunTrust, where she was a managing director.

Gallivan, who heads TMT banking, joined the firm in March and spent the past seven months assembling the team. It is now fully set up, right down to the analyst and associate level, and the team recently moved into a new two-floor West Coast office at 235 Pine Street in San Francisco’s financial district.

A man is reflected on an advertisement board of Mizuho Financial Group’s Mizuho Bank in TokyoThomson Reuters

The team, which will focus on internet, software, hardware, and semis, includes Alok Gupta, who recently joined as head of electronics and hardware banking, and Chris Nam, who was hired in June as head of internet and digital media banking. Jansen started at Mizuho about two weeks ago, while Upton started three or four weeks ago.

“There’s an existing global client base here at Mizuho, both from Asia as well as the US, and a lot of those are companies that me or Chris or John have existing relationships with, so bringing the new products to bear on our existing clients around M&A, equities, convertible bonds, and financial sponsors will be one core focus,” Gallivan told Business Insider.

“The second is supporting our Asian clients from our home turf, with respect to their cross-border initiatives. And then the third is developing the emerging growth side of the business here with respect to new clients and bringing new clients into the firm. It’ll be a balanced effort across those initiatives.”