About Chatsworth Securities

Senior-led investment banking for strategic transactions.

Chatsworth Securities advises boards, founders, shareholders, and sponsors on sale processes, private placements, recapitalizations, rights offerings, GP advisory, capital formation, and cross-border strategic transactions. The firm is senior-led from mandate to close, with continuous U.S. broker-dealer registration since 1996.

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Why Clients Engage Chatsworth

Hired where the outcome matters.

Clients select Chatsworth when a transaction is consequential rather than routine. The commercial reasons to engage the firm are concrete, and they follow from how the firm is structured to operate.

01

Senior attention that holds through close

The partner in the pitch is the partner on the call the week of signing. Not a pitch team, a transition, and then a different set of faces once the mandate is live.

02

Leverage protected, not traded away

Leverage built in the pre-process phase is defended through diligence, pricing, and documentation. Process speed is managed so the client keeps negotiating room through every round.

03

Work that holds up with boards and counsel

Analysis, materials, and process decisions are produced to a standard that withstands board review, committee scrutiny, and counsel's questions without rework.

04

One senior team if the structure shifts

A mandate may start as a sale and conclude as a private placement, or vice versa. The senior team travels with the transaction, so context is never reset mid-process.

05

Credibility counterparties recognize

A registered U.S. broker-dealer with continuous standing since 1996. Counterparty compliance teams, institutional LPs, and strategic acquirers can diligence the firm before they engage.

Orientation

A brief introduction to the Chatsworth approach.

A short look at how the firm approaches strategic transactions, senior-led execution, and institutional client work.

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What We Advise On

One advisory platform, with focus.

Chatsworth is organized around a core advisory platform that spans strategic and capital mandates. Within that platform, the firm operates selected sector verticals where the transaction dynamics reward specialized judgment.

Core Advisory Platform

M&A Advisory

Sell-side, buy-side, and strategic combinations where positioning, competitive tension, and negotiation discipline determine the outcome.

Private Placements

Equity, preferred, structured, and hybrid capital raises for growth, expansion, and recapitalization across public and private issuers.

GP Advisory & Capital Formation

Fund structuring, anchor investor introduction, and institutional capital formation for emerging and established sponsors.

Cross-Border Strategic Transactions

Multi-jurisdiction mandates across North America, Europe, and Asia. Structuring, counterparty access, and transaction coordination across legal and cultural interfaces.

Differentiated Sector Verticals

Technology & Applied AI

M&A and capital raising for software, AI infrastructure, applied intelligence, and data-native businesses at growth and institutional scale.

Energy Transition

Advisory and capital formation for fuel cells, hydrogen, grid-scale infrastructure, and industrial decarbonization platforms with institutional offtake economics.

Rights Offerings

Registered and unregistered equity transactions, rights offerings, and shareholder capital events for listed and emerging growth issuers.

How We Execute

A deliberate operating model.

Execution is organized around a small number of operating principles that hold across every mandate, regardless of sector, size, or geography.

01

Mandate staffing, fixed from day one

The senior team introduced at engagement is the team through signing and close. No reassignments, no handoffs, no staffing churn mid-process.

02

Pre-process diligence build

Equity story, financial architecture, data room, and counterparty map are completed before the first outreach call. Process timing follows readiness, not internal pressure.

03

Sequenced counterparty outreach

Counterparties are engaged in deliberate waves, tested against positioning, and managed to preserve tension. Broad unfiltered outreach is the exception, not the default.

04

Information discipline throughout

What information travels, to whom, and when, is actively managed. The same discipline applies to internal diligence flow as to external counterparty communications.

05

Parallel cross-border coordination

Legal, tax, and regulatory workstreams in different jurisdictions run concurrently rather than sequentially, with a single senior banker coordinating across advisors.

Market Presence

Where the firm operates in practice.

Mandates span four primary advisory environments. Each carries its own counterparty dynamics, regulatory texture, and diligence standard. Chatsworth engages across all four concurrently.

I

Shareholder-capital environments

Registered issuer engagements, rights offerings, and shareholder capital events. Offering structure and regulatory sequencing handled directly by the firm's senior bankers.

II

Private placement and growth capital

Private placement advisory is the firm's principal line of business, active across equity, preferred, and structured mandates for founder-led and sponsor-backed issuers.

III

Sponsor and GP capital formation

Continuing capital formation work with emerging and established sponsors. Fund structuring, anchor investor introduction, and institutional LP engagement.

IV

Cross-border transaction environments

M&A and capital formation mandates across U.S., European, and Asian counterparties. Legal, tax, and regulatory interfaces coordinated in parallel rather than sequentially.

Institutional Standing

A registered U.S. investment bank, diligenceable on the record.

Counterparties, boards, and institutional investors perform their own diligence on every advisor they engage. Chatsworth is structured so that diligence returns a clean, verifiable institutional profile.

Registration

FINRA and SEC registration, continuous since 1996

Continuous U.S. broker-dealer registration since the firm's founding. The full record, including CRD and BrokerCheck data, is independently verifiable through regulatory filings.

Business model

Focused advisory and placement practice

Chatsworth operates as a focused institutional advisor across M&A, private placements, and capital formation. It is not a retail brokerage, not a trading or clearing platform, and not a general securities supermarket.

Diligenceability

Publicly verifiable institutional profile

Counterparty compliance teams, institutional LPs, and strategic acquirers can diligence the firm's registration and conduct record through public regulatory sources before any engagement advances.

Standing

Member FINRA and SIPC

Member of FINRA and SIPC, within the federal supervisory framework that governs U.S. broker-dealer activity. The institutional profile counterparties recognize and expect.

Founding DNA

Three decades of continuous operation.

Chatsworth was founded in 1996 as an independent U.S. broker-dealer. The firm has operated continuously since, adding capabilities deliberately as client mandates have evolved.

1996

Chatsworth Securities LLC founded as a U.S. broker-dealer under continuous FINRA and SEC registration.

2000s

Advisory practice extended to cross-border mandates with U.S. and European counterparties.

2010s

Dedicated private placements, GP advisory, and capital formation capabilities added to the advisory platform.

Today

Active M&A, private placement, capital markets, and cross-border advisory, with technology and energy transition as current focus verticals.

Founders & Early Principals

The founding partners.

The founding partners and early principals established the firm's original mandate: senior attention on every transaction, discipline over volume, and institutional standards applied consistently across clients.

Ralph DiFiore, Founding Partner of Chatsworth Securities

Ralph DiFiore

Founding Partner

Co-founded Chatsworth Securities in 1996 and helped establish the firm's institutional advisory framework and senior-led execution model.

Curtis E. Gowdy, Founding Partner of Chatsworth Securities

Curtis E. Gowdy

Founding Partner

Founding partner and founding shareholder who helped establish Chatsworth's early institutional relationships and cross-border advisory positioning.

Syngon "Sy" L. Hare, Founding Partner of Chatsworth Securities

Syngon "Sy" L. Hare

Founding Partner

Founding partner who helped build Chatsworth's capital markets, syndicate, and registered offering capabilities.

Daniel C. Maclean, Founding Partner of Chatsworth Securities

Daniel C. Maclean

Founding Partner

Founding partner who contributed to the firm's broker-dealer infrastructure, regulatory framework, and institutional advisory model.

Joel J. Matcovsky, Founding Partner of Chatsworth Securities

Joel J. Matcovsky

Founding Partner

Founding partner who helped develop Chatsworth's private placement, origination, and institutional investor relationship platform.

Frequently Asked Questions

Key Questions Boards, Founders, and Shareholders Ask.

The questions below reflect the practical decisions clients face when evaluating an advisor. They are designed to clarify where Chatsworth fits, how the firm works, and what differentiates the platform across strategic transactions, capital formation, and cross-border execution.

Considering a sale, a capital raise, a recapitalization, or a cross-border transaction?

Introductory conversations with a Managing Director are confidential and without obligation. A senior banker will respond directly.

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