Maveron LLC was founded in January 1998 and is based in Seattle, Washington. Maveron, LLC is a venture capital firm specializing in early to mid stage venture financing. The firm seeks to make investments in consumer-focused businesses that have a highly differentiated brand. It invests in traditional consumer product and service businesses; companies that utilize technology to deliver products and services directly to the consumer; and companies that provide technology and services to consumer facing companies. The firm usually makes an initial investment between $3million to $10 million. It prefers to be the lead investor and takes a board seat on its portfolio companies.

Battery Management, which was founded in 1983, manages more than $3 billion in committed capital; notable past investments include Akamai Technologies, Allegiance Telecom, Focal Communications, and Chordiant Software. Battery Management gives emerging technology companies the juice they need to keep running. A venture capital firm specializing in such high-tech fields as communications, software, and e-commerce, the company has invested in more than 200 businesses around the world. It invests as little as several hundred thousand dollars to seed small ventures on up to $100 million for late-stage expansion; it also takes equity stakes in companies through its private equity operations.

Siparex Croissance has holdings in some 200 French and international companies, including businesses in the food, IT, and medical sectors. Its holdings include such firms as Botanic (consumer garden products), La Grande Récré (major French toy and game retailer), and Martin Belaysoud Expansion (industrial and plumbing supplies). Due to the worldwide slump in technology stocks, Siparex is focusing its new investments on a smaller number of companies with established track records and experienced management. Some of the largest French banks, companies, and institutional investors dominate Siparex's shareholders, owning almost three-quarters of its stock.

A.B. Watley Group wants you to trade up. Through A.B. Watley Direct, it provides online trading and related services to individual and corporate customers. The firm's institutional sales and trading desk handles anonymous, off-exchange, large-block transactions for mutual and pension funds, insurance companies, banks, corporations, and independent fund managers. A.B. Watley operates through the UltimateTrader (targeting individuals) and WatleyTrader (targeting institutional and large-volume traders). In 2009 former management of now-defunct daytrading subsidiary A.B. Watley, Inc. were convicted of conspiring to violate securities laws.

Founder and CEO Tom Gores, who started Platinum Equity in 1995, is the brother of Alec Gores, who founded another investment firm, Gores Technology Group. Platinum Equity typically seeks to acquire private companies, public firms that want to become private, and units that large corporations are looking to divest; these companies usually have established brands and customer bases, and most importantly, recurring revenues. Platinum Equity also looks for acquisitions as strategic add-ons to its portfolio companies, which have operations worldwide. It focuses on such sectors as manufacturing, distribution, technology services, and communications.

The New York City Transitional Finance Authority (TFA) won't sell you the Brooklyn Bridge, but it will let you invest in repairs. The quasi-independent government agency sells municipal bonds to finance the Big Apple's capital improvement projects -- public buildings, roads, bridges, etc. The authority was created in 1997 to circumvent state constitutional limitations on the amount of debt the city could take on. With the authority to issue up to $11.5 billion in bonds, the agency proved to be even more useful than anticipated, selling $2 billion in bonds for recovery costs following the September 11 attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center. The TFA's bond limit has since been raised to $13.5 billion.

Greenlight Capital is a hedge fund firm that invests primarily in publicly traded North American corporate debt offerings and equities. Founded in 1996, the $6 billion Greenlight Capital also manages a fund of funds and a private equity fund through its affiliates, Greenlight Masters and Greenlight Private Equity Partners. It also operates Greenlight Capital Re, a property/casualty reinsurer. The company is led by activist investor David Einhorn, who has made a name for himself both in the boardroom and at the card table (as a finalist in the World Series of Poker).

Deutsche Bank began operations in Russia in 1881, opened its first bank branch there in 1972, and founded the subsidiary in 1998. The company, known as Deutsche Bank Moscow, serves domestic and foreign individual, corporate, and government clients in Russia and the other former Soviet republics, offering corporate banking services (finance, advisory, sales, transaction) and private asset management. Customers have included Gazprom (through Gazprombank), Norilsk Nickel, Aeroflot, and Enel SpA. It also works the IPO market, helping VTB Bank go public in 2007; the deal was the world's largest public offering that year.

Gryphon Investors was founded in 1995 and is based in San Francisco, California. Gryphon Investors is a private equity firm specializing in buyouts, leveraged build ups, and growth capital investments in middle market companies. The firm targets its investments in business services, consumer, specialty retail, and general industry sectors. It typically invests in industries that have high fragmentation, scale advantages, strong underlying demographics, and demand drivers. The firm prefers to invest in companies based in the United States. It prefers to invest between $25 million and $75 million in equity or equity linked securities in companies with revenues between $25 million and $250 million. The firm seeks to acquire controlled or shared controlled position in a portfolio company. It generally exits its investments within three years to five years.

Management Limited was founded in 1881 and is based in Edinburgh, Midlothian. Martin Currie Investment Management Limited is an employee owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to financial institutions, charities, foundations, endowments, pension funds, family offices, government agencies, investment trusts, banking or thrift institutions, pooled investment vehicles, and corporations. It manages separate client focused equity portfolios. The firm also manages mutual funds and hedge funds for its clients. It invests in the public equity markets across the globe. The firm invests in growth oriented value stocks employing a thematic investment approach. It employs fundamental analysis with a combination of bottom-up and top-down stock picking approach to create its portfolios. The firm makes use of both internal and external research to make its investments. It operates as a subsidiary of Martin Currie Limited.

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