Julien Villemonteix is the CEO of UpSlide, a software company that creates documents for investment banking and financial advisory firms.
With merger and acquisition activity subdued by uncertainty surrounding trade and tariffs in the U.S., many banks have seen a bumpy start to dealmaking in 2025.
Fewer deals mean greater competition, and in this landscape, boutique firms can find themselves competing against mid-tier firms and beyond. To succeed in this market, deal teams in 2025 can leverage new and evolving technologies to find efficiencies and do more with less.
Making the right tech investments is crucial, however. As CEO at a document creation and automation software company, I meet with many businesses that see the potential in automation and AI but also have concerns about making the wrong investment choice.
Pitch Perfect
Creating impactful pitchbooks has always been key to winning mandates and request-for-proposals (RFPs). Once upon a time, analysts and associates would have spent hours poring over a pitchbook, sending it to print and then sharing it with senior team members for written feedback. Technology has changed this, and not just in terms of creating and sharing pitchbooks digitally.
The emergence of a work-from-home culture since the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the dynamics around pitchbooks, with many presentations now delivered remotely and online. This has resulted in a much greater emphasis on brand and design, as hybrid meetings and high-resolution screens leave no margin for error.
Technology has also impacted the way pitchbooks are prepared. With concerns around shortened attention spans, many deal teams say a successful pitchbook now needs to contain even more information in an even shorter format, or else you risk losing the target audience. So, while online pitches can save travel time and expense, they require more investment during creation to ensure brand consistency and a sophisticated design that makes each pitch stand out.
In such a competitive, detail-oriented space, even relatively minor errors in brand consistency and design can give a negative impression of a firm and contribute to the loss of a deal.
More For Less
A further complication for investment banks looking to capitalize on potentially growing deal volumes is headcount. Many deal teams have shrunk in recent years, which can lead to additional pressure on teams, with extra work often landing on the desks of junior bankers.
The investment banking industry is increasingly recognizing the significant pressure junior bankers are placed under, which can leave them unable to maintain the work-life balance that younger generations of employees often seek. This poses a significant risk to the well-being of junior team members and the overall stability of teams.
Team members, junior or senior, leaving for better-resourced firms with more powerful tech stacks is something investment banking leaders will need to mitigate as the market grows more competitive.
Exploring Automation
So, how can teams square the circle of growing competition and demands with smaller headcounts? One step deal teams can consider taking is to look for parts of the pitch deck creation process that could be automated. This can help level the playing field for firms competing against larger, better-resourced organizations, as automation allows teams to do more with less.
In the coming years, I expect tech procurement to be a central concern for firms. As technology scales and becomes more affordable, efficient software roll-out and successful integration will likely become key goals. Firms that strategically invest in new technologies can position themselves to outperform larger firms where software is quickly onboarded but badly implemented.
Best Practices For Adopting New Tech
The risk of not investing strategically can be significant. Poorly implemented and onboarded technology can be counterproductive and costly. A survey of investment banking teams we undertook saw 68% of respondents indicate that up to a quarter of a firm’s software budgets is wasted on poor Software-as-a-Service deployment and utilization. Combined with the time spent debugging poorly integrated systems, it’s easy to see how a tech investment can move from being an asset to a liability.
Firms with a number of legacy brands to integrate as a result of acquisition-led growth might find more value in exploring tech tools focused on brand consistency. But for businesses that find a lot of churn in their junior team, they may see most value in the automation of the routine tasks that can take up so much time.
It’s also important to ensure that whatever investments are made, they can be integrated into existing tech stacks successfully and deployed effectively.
Finally, firms must understand that simply buying software doesn’t equal impact. If teams aren’t effectively trained on how to use the tool, they’re less likely to use the tool. Firms must get their tech implementation and strategy right to be successful. With the right training, integration and internal alignment, firms can ensure the solutions they choose are catalysts for growth, rather than investments that fail to reach their potential.
The evolution of the pitchbook is just one example of how technology is impacting the dynamics of the investment banking industry. Where once the focus might have been more on a compelling pitch built around a printed deliverable, in virtual settings, the document itself takes more of the center stage. As the industry finds itself in the midst of a more competitive M&A market, I believe being pitch-perfect every time is going to be key to sealing the deal.
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