Toronto’s Origin Merchant Partners expands into Boston

Open this photo in gallery:

Toronto-based investment bank Origin Merchant Partners is planting its flag on the U.S. East Coast.

Veteran technology banker Horacio Facca is joining Origin as its 20th managing director, the firm announced Tuesday. Mr. Facca is based in Boston and will be tasked with building out a North American tech sector M&A advisory platform, less than one year after Origin expanded into the U.S. market by acquiring Chicago-based InterOcean Advisors.

The bank also has a presence in Montreal, Atlanta and Denver.

While Mr. Facca – previously the founding managing partner of Silicon Valley-based advisory firm Venture Marketeers – will officially be based in Boston, his mandate is global.

“Horacio is probably one of the most international bankers I have ever met,” said Jim Osler, one of Origin’s founding managing partners, in an interview. “He is on a plane all the time, he speaks five languages and works in Europe and in Latin America and will be meeting a lot with clients.”

The U.S. currently accounts for about 25 per cent of Origin’s revenue, Mr. Osler said, “and we hope that with Horacio on board we will more than double that.”

Mr. Facca said he will focus on software-as-a-service (SaaS), enterprise software, fintech and payment systems, as those are the sectors in which both he and Origin have spent years developing expertise.

“And those are global sectors by definition,” he said in an interview. “One of the compelling aspects of Origin for me is that Canadians are very international thinkers.”

Since its establishment in 2011, Origin has advised entrepreneurs and companies on more than 250 transactions, including divestitures, acquisitions and capital raising. Despite the fact less than one-fifth of that total – 45 deals – was technology-related, part of the rationale behind hiring Mr. Facca is to make tech deals a larger share of Origin’s work in the future.

“When Jim and myself and the others started Origin, it was kind of like drinking from a firehose in some respects, but I think we are finally building the bench strength and our capabilities,” said Mario Di Pietro, Origin’s Canadian technology practice lead, in an interview. “We’ve only been limited by our own resources, so having more resources in the tech sector will naturally result in more transactions.”

Depressed valuations in the tech sector, meanwhile, will also allow Origin to be more discerning about the work it chooses to do in the space, Mr. Facca said.

“Part of the privilege of having the vantage point that we have is that we can select really good companies, with very good management teams and very good business models, that are growing with the right metrics and nice margins that command a multiple expansion,” he said.