Wellington Financial Opens New York Office

Although we did our first financing for a NY-based company over seven years ago, we’ve finally got around to adding a fourth North American office in that great city. According to PwC MoneyTree Report™ data, New York has been the second-most active venture capital market in North America in each of the past four years. To lead the New York-based team, which will round-out over time, Robin Gill has joined the firm as a Partner.  

Robin is a seasoned technology lender, most recently serving as Senior Vice President of City National Bank where he was responsible for technology debt financings within its multi-billion dollar Technology and Life Sciences loan portfolio.

New York and New Jersey have been a great market for our firm. To date, we’ve financed ten VC-backed companies from our Toronto base of operations.  With Robin’s established network and business acumen, we’ll do an even better job of serving the needs of the region’s technology companies.  With his prior institution, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists knew that they could rely on Robin to lead the way in innovation lending.

Prior to City National Bank, Robin served as Director at Silicon Valley Bank in both New York and Boston where he financed early-stage technology companies over a ten-year period.  He was educated at California Polytechnic State University, and still has a cell phone number from that part of the world!  Although he is on “gardening leave” right now, he can be contacted at rgill@wellingtonfund.com.

Notable Wellington Financial exits in the NY/NJ tech ecosystem include: CME Group’s (CME:Q) acquisition of Pivot in 2012; Actua’s (ACTA:Q) acquisition of Folio Dynamix in 2014; Oracle’s (ORCL:Q) acquisition of Maxymiser in 2015; as well as Mediaocean’s tie-up of Invision and SintecMedia’s purchase of Operative Media in 2016.

For those who haven’t been paying much attention, this is now our fourth North American office.  We started in Santa Monica in 2009 (VP Eric Speer).  Opened a second California presence in San Francisco in 2013.  In 2015, we moved our Northern California presence to Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park (where Partner Jeff Chapman, VP Paul McKinlay and Partner Ash Vaidya hang their hats).

Welcome Robin. You have arrived just in the nick of time!

MRM