BofA hires Greg Reider, ex-Warburg Pincus, to lead tech in Brazil

Bank of America has just hired Gregory Reider to lead the technology and fintech area of its investment bank in Brazil and Latin America – a bet that this vertical will gain representation in the bank's business in the coming years.

Gregory worked for almost 10 years at Warburg Pincus in Brazil, and then founded venture capital manager Volpe Capital with André Maciel. Before that, he had a five-year experience in IB at Credit Suisse and Lazard in New York, and was a partner at BR Partners for about two years.

Now, he will take over the position that was held by Pedro Pereira, who left BofA in March after 15 years to take over as CFO of iFood.

The new managing director starts at BofA on Monday, reporting to Bruno Saraiva and Hans Lins, the co-heads of IB in Brazil.

In addition to being highly knowledgeable about technology, Gregory “has very strong relationships in the sector, which is one of our priorities for the coming years,” Saraiva told Brazil Journal.

According to him, the fee pool of the tech sector has been growing consistently, stealing share from other industries in Brazil.

The sector started to gain relevance in Faria Lima around 2017-2019, with the IPOs of Stone, Pagseguro and then Nubank, and in the last three years it has gained strength with numerous M&A transactions.

For Saraiva, “in a scenario of high interest rates, tech should continue to gain relevance because the companies that attract interest from global strategics are those that fundamentally grow more.”

The technology sector went from 5.5% of the fee pool in Brazil in 2021 to 9.1% in 2024 and 18.3% this year, according to Dealogic data.

Saraiva believes that in the next five years this share can almost double again, to 30%.

“There is a crop of companies on the ‘VC track’ – with very high-quality entrepreneurs and competitive moats – that are ready or almost ready for an IPO in the United States.

In the next 12 to 24 months, we will have some interesting companies looking for this path.

In addition, we are seeing a growing interest from funds and strategics in Brazilian companies.”

In recent years, BofA has advised on the IPO of Picpay, Warburg Pincus' investment in Matera, General Atlantic's investment in Softplan, as well as the sale of Conta Azul to Vismo and Clearsale to Experian.

In the last two years, the bank has ranked first in Dealogic's ranking that measures the fee pool of the technology sector in Brazil, ahead of banks such as Citi, Morgan Stanley and Itaú BBA.

According to Dealogic data, BofA has a share of 21.8% this year, followed by Citi (19%) and Morgan Stanley (11.1%).

Last year, its share was 39.3%.