Naveen Goyal

Naveen Goyal is a co-founder and Managing Director of Auspex Capital, a boutique investment banking and financial-advisory firm focused exclusively on the restaurant industry. Over more than 20 years, he has helped execute more than $3 billion in transactions for clients, spanning balance-sheet restructurings and reorganizations, debt and private-equity placements, mergers and acquisitions, and other investment- and merchant-banking work. Auspex's service set includes buy-side and sell-side M&A advisory, debt placement, asset valuation, institutional private equity and mezzanine placement, sale-leaseback structuring, and financial restructuring.

Before establishing Auspex, Goyal was a Principal at Trinity Capital, LLC, where he oversaw a team of analysts. Earlier in his career he was a lead analyst at Bayview Franchise Mortgage Acceptance Company, responsible for franchise-finance deals across the quick-service restaurant, convenience-store, and gas-station sectors — the roots of his deep specialization in franchise operator finance. His long-time colleague and fellow Auspex Managing Director, Christopher Kelleher, shares a similar background across Trinity Capital and franchise-finance lenders such as Franchise Mortgage Acceptance Company.

Goyal holds an MBA in finance from the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University and is a graduate of Bangalore University in India. His stated skills include financial modeling, mergers, valuation, financial analysis, and corporate finance. He has appeared as a speaker at the Restaurant Leadership Conference.

*Note on the source stub:* The provided data labeled Goyal an "Angel Investor" making "Seed Round" investments. Nothing in the public record supports that characterization. His verifiable work is as a restaurant-industry investment banker and M&A/capital-raising advisor — arranging capital *for* restaurant operators rather than writing early-stage startup checks. The profile below reflects that verified role.

• Focuses squarely on the restaurant and franchise sector, bringing "deep industry knowledge and strong, long-term relationships" to operator clients.
• Arranges and advises on institutional private equity, mezzanine capital, and debt placements, as well as sale-leaseback financings — i.e., growth and recapitalization capital for established multi-unit franchisees, not seed-stage venture bets.
• Advises on buy-side and sell-side M&A, helping franchisees both acquire units and harvest value through sales.
• Values patience and operator discipline in the build-to-exit cycle. On the multi-year RGT Management wind-down he framed the philosophy plainly: *"It's part of the journey. They're going to have to build until it's time to harvest."*