D.A. Davidson Co. has entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire Marlin & Associates, an advisory firm to investment banks serving companies and investors across the financial technology and data & analytics industries.

Marlin & Associates is an advisor for buyers and sellers of middle-market firms that offer enterprise and vertical application software, services, data and analytics — including firms that offer fintech, wealthtech, insurtech, banktech, legaltech, GRC, business Intelligence and market intelligence.

“We are excited to welcome our Marlin & Associates colleagues to the team. We have long admired their established track record as a trusted advisor and sector specialist within the fast-growing financial technology and data & analytics industries,” said Rory McKinney, head of investment banking at D.A. Davidson. “In addition to our full-service equity capital markets capabilities and expanding research platform, we will now have 40 professionals dedicated to advising companies in the technology space, significantly enhancing our ability to provide world-class service to our clients.”

“Our entire team at Marlin & Associates is thrilled to join with D.A. Davidson,” said Marlin & Associates founder and managing member, Ken Marlin. “We have found a partner who will help us to build on a 20-year history of dedication to client success that we at Marlin & Associates are all quite proud of. D.A. Davidson is a firm that shares our passion for building long-term client relationships through focused expertise, teamwork, hard work and excellence. We will leverage our combined abilities to help clients develop and execute their strategic goals at an entirely new level — bringing expanded capabilities to fintech and data & analytics firms worldwide.”

“This combination significantly elevates our technology practice and brings us the required scale and domain expertise to serve any client in any situation across the fintech landscape,” said Joe Morgan, head of technology investment banking at D.A. Davidson. “Fintech is one of the fastest growing sub-sectors within technology – represented by over $60 billion in financing activity and over 3,200 completed M&A deals in the last twelve months alone.”