John Markell

John Markell is a Managing Partner and co-founder of Armentum Partners, an independent debt capital advisory firm (founded in 2010, based in Menlo Park, CA) that helps technology and healthcare companies raise non-dilutive and venture debt financing. He brings more than 20 years of technology-industry experience spanning roles in engineering as well as debt, equity, and M&A transactions.

Before co-founding Armentum, Markell worked at the investment banks Seven Hills Partners, CIBC World Markets, and JP Morgan, with postings across New York, London, Toronto, and San Francisco. This combination of advisory, capital-markets, and cross-border deal experience underpins Armentum's positioning as a specialist intermediary between growth companies and lenders.

Markell is also a Licensed Professional Engineer. He earned a Master of Business Administration from York University and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and Mathematics from Queen's University in Canada — an engineering-plus-finance background that he frequently brings to bear in technical diligence on the companies Armentum advises.

At Armentum, he is one of the firm's most public voices on venture debt, regularly appearing at industry conferences and on finance podcasts to discuss how lenders underwrite young companies and how founders should think about structuring debt.

• Operates primarily on the debt / non-dilutive capital side rather than as a traditional equity angel — Armentum advises companies on raising bank facilities, ABL structures, venture debt, first- and second-lien loans, unitranche, and subordinated debt.
• Works with a broad network of 250+ lenders including banks, venture-debt providers, late-stage lenders, asset managers, hedge funds, family offices, and strategic lenders.
• Focus is on venture-backed technology and healthcare companies that can responsibly support leverage — he has publicly stressed that venture debt is right for some startups and decidedly wrong for others.
• Emphasizes optimizing capital structure and terms for the client's specific stage and needs, rather than maximizing the size of a raise.
• On the venture-debt market, he has spoken about how lenders underwrite early-stage companies, why investors had "soured on the consumer market," and how venture debt differs from structured equity (PitchBook "In Visible Capital," 2022).