Gustav Koven

Gus Koven is a co-founder of Savano Capital Partners, a Baltimore, Maryland–based fund founded in 2010 that invests in technology-driven, high-growth private companies and provides liquidity to individual shareholders such as former executives, angel investors, and founders. Within the firm he has served as Operating Partner and Chief Compliance Officer, and is currently listed on the firm's team page as an Advisory Partner. He brings more than 25 years of private equity experience across leveraged buyouts and early- and expansion-stage investing, plus more than a decade in corporate mergers, acquisitions, and business development.

Before Savano, Koven was a General Partner and co-founder of SmithDefieux Capital Partners and a Managing Director of the private equity investment program at Knickerbocker LLC. Earlier in his career he was a General Partner at Edison Ventures, where he led growth-stage investments in software, financial services, and business services companies.

Prior to his venture and private equity roles, Koven spent a significant part of his career at The Chase Manhattan Bank, where he was Vice President of Corporate Development and later became President of the Chase Manhattan Capital Corporation, leading the bank's private equity business. He also held a corporate development role at Union Carbide.

Koven earned his MBA from Columbia University and his BE (Bachelor of Engineering) from Stevens Institute of Technology.

• Savano's core strategy is providing liquidity to shareholders of high-growth private technology companies — effectively a direct secondaries/late-stage approach rather than traditional primary early-stage rounds.
• Sector emphasis on software/SaaS, communications, e-commerce, technology-enabled services, fintech, mobile, healthcare, and clean tech/alternative energy.
• The firm partners with "leading companies by providing liquidity to individual shareholders, such as former executives, angel investors and founders," pointing to a relationship- and cap-table-driven sourcing model.
• Koven personally has been categorized as an angel investor at the seed stage, distinct from the firm's later-stage secondary mandate.
• Deep operational/PE background (buyouts, corporate M&A, bank-affiliated private equity) informs a hands-on, experience-led approach — the firm's stated ethos is "Deep Experience. Personalized Approach."