Seattle-based investment bank Cascadia Capital has landed more than $50 million in an investment from Atlas Merchant Capital, a firm based in New York and London.
Michael Butler, co-founder and CEO of Cascadia, said the investment "puts gas in the tank" as the investment bank looks to grow. Butler is moving to Austin, Texas, at the start of October to open Cascadia's fifth office in the U.S.
"I've made myself redundant in Seattle. We have a bunch of (managing directors) who are in the Seattle market and have as good of relationships in the Seattle market as I do," Butler said. "I'm going to grow the fast-growing markets — the Austins. I want to focus on Austin. I want to focus on Nashville, Raleigh/Durham, Florida. Those are the growth markets, and I think my best and highest use is to really develop those markets."
Butler said the firm has about 85 people right now. Although Cascadia doesn't have a specific target for its immediate growth, Butler said a potential downturn could result in great talent becoming available, in which case Cascadia will hire aggressively.
As for Cascadia's national growth, the firm also has offices in Nashville, Tennessee; Los Angeles; and Minneapolis. Butler said although the Minneapolis and Los Angeles offices opened about six years ago, the real effort around growing in new markets started about two or three years ago.
Butler said Bob Diamond, Atlas' founding partner and CEO, understands the business and has energy that can fuel the Cascadia team. He added that he is looking forward to the intensity and accountability Diamond will bring.
Cascadia, founded in 2000, offers services in mergers and acquisitions, private capital and equity placement. It works in industries like robotics, energy transition and health care.
Butler said Cascadia is about an $80 million business right now, and most investment banks just sell when they get to that size. Cascadia, he added, still has a lot of energy in its leadership team and wants to give the younger employees a chance to take Cascadia to the next level.
"We just think they are going to be better than (co-founder and managing director Kevin Cable) and me," Butler said. "We think we can take this business to $150 million to $200 million. We think they can take this thing beyond $500 million. They're just really talented people."
