Boutique Investment Bank For Financial Technology
Senior-led, conflict-free advice, defined by straight talk,
disciplined judgment, and a long-term view.
About Confluens Partners
Confluens: Latin - "To Flow or Run Together"
Confluens Partners is an independent technology and fintech investment bank built on a clear mandate: to tell clients the truth, to put their interests first, and to deliver senior-level, conflict-free advice on decisions that matter. We advise founders, boards, and financial sponsors on M&A and capital markets with a long-term owner’s mindset, prioritizing valuation, structure, timing, and risk over process-driven execution. As a partner-led platform, we ensure that every engagement is handled hands-on by experienced senior bankers from strategy through closing, ensuring accountability, discretion, and informed judgment rather than delegated execution. We combine boutique attention with large-firm rigor—deep sector expertise, disciplined preparation, and relentless follow-through—while providing clear, unvarnished guidance, ensuring no surprises on fees or conflicts, and demonstrating the willingness to have hard conversations when required. Our reputation is grounded in integrity, straight talk, and repeat relationships, with a singular objective: protecting and compounding our clients’ equity value over time by doing what is right, even when doing so runs counter to near-term outcomes.
Paul Friday
Paul is a technology-focused investment banker with more than 30 years of experience advising founders, boards, and private equity sponsors on complex middle-market and large-cap mergers and acquisitions, capital raises, and strategic transactions. He has advised on more than 85 public and private M&A transactions, SPACs, minority growth investments, control buyouts, and equity and debt financings across the financial technology landscape. His client experience includes leading strategic acquirers such as Octus, Shift4, NYSE/ICE, IHS Markit, FIS, FactSet, Morningstar, Thomson Reuters, Verisk, Black Knight, and Broadridge, as well as financial sponsors including Accel, Bessemer, Parthenon, Welsh Carson, Francisco Partners, and other prominent private equity firms. His advisory work spans a wide range of Fintech companies —from payments platforms and crypto exchanges to trading systems, derivatives, risk, analytics, and market data—giving him a comprehensive perspective on how technology, regulation, and capital markets intersect.
Prior to founding Confluens Partners in 2024, Paul joined the Financial Technology Services Group at KBW in New York in 2018. Before KBW, he was a Partner at Marlin & Associates, a fintech-focused boutique investment bank, where he spent 15 years and played a significant role in the firm’s growth. Earlier in his career, he held technology investment banking roles at Robertson Stephens and PaineWebber (acquired by UBS), advising early Internet and software companies on M&A, IPOs, and private capital raises. Throughout his career, Paul has met with hundreds of management teams and investors, building a reputation for senior-level execution, straight talk, and long-term client relationships that are grounded in trust, judgment, and outcomes—not transaction volume.