Sarah Antor

Managing Partner at Helen Capital

Speaker

Sarah Antor is founding General Partner at Helena Capital, a late stage /growth equity venture capital firm based in Germany but investing across Europe and North America into next-gen industrial, supply chain and dual-use frontier technologies focused on resilience and ripe for transatlantic scale. She brings deep expertise in capital markets, fund formation, late-stage growth and exit strategies with a career spanning three decades across banking, law and technology – the last two based in Munich Germany.

In 2018, Sarah was tapped to lead the European investment banking division of Raymond James (NYSE:RFJ) as COO Europe and she served as CEO of the German subsidiary until 2022. During her tenure, the division grew from <$40m to over $100m in annual revenue. She most recently served as Head of Regulatory for the AI-powered fintech platform, Hawk:AI. She was also General Counsel to fintech Payworks ahead of its sale to Visa.

Ms. Antor began her career in capital markets at SmithBarney in 1996 followed by First Union Securities as a high-yield debt Research Analyst focused on telecommunications and healthcare, completing her Series 6, 7, 63 and 65 certifications as well as the level 1 CFA exam before entering law school. In 2003, she joined the Office of South Carolina’s Governor Mark Sanford as Chief Legal Counsel and her remit included drafting the first Venture Capital Program for the state as a fund of funds structure and steering economic development with the state’s largest trading partner, Bavaria, Germany. Four years later, Sarah accepted a role at BridgehouseLaw - a German law firm serving corporate clients in their transatlantic expansion - and relocated to Munich.

She very quickly found her niche supporting tech startups in the financial services sector with incorporating, fundraising, expanding, relocating or solidifying partnerships and buyers in the U.S. Sarah graduated from Tulane University with a B.A. in economics, B.A. in organizational behavior and a business minor, received her J.D. from the University of South Carolina School of Law and has been an Adjunct Professor of both Law at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and Business at the EU Business School in Munich.

She lives in Munich with her husband and three daughters