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Ascend empowers entrepreneurial CPAs to reach their goals with an innovative growth model that brings their firms into the new age. Backed by private equity from people-focused Alpine Investors, Ascend is building a modern platform for regional accounting firms that enables them to stay independent while accessing the resources of a large CPA firm to help them grow. Ascend provides access to growth capital, robust talent acquisition, best-of-breed technology, a catalytic leadership system, shared back-office services, and modernized equity incentives so that firms can surmount todays industry challenges and reach their full potential. Founded in January 2023, the company attained revenues sufficient to qualify it as a Top 100 U.S. accounting firm within six months of operation.
West Coast Community Bank is a full-service community bank headquartered in Santa Cruz, California, serving Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties since 2004. The bank is dedicated to community involvement, actively supporting local well-being through participation and donations to regional nonprofit organizations. In 2024, it merged with 1st Capital Bancorp to enhance its capabilities and better serve the community, with plans to rebrand all branches as West Coast Community Bank by 2025. The bank offers a variety of financial services for both businesses and individuals. These include business loans, commercial real estate financing, asset-based lending, construction lending, and agricultural loans. It also provides SBA and USDA government guaranteed loans, credit cards, merchant services, and digital banking solutions. For personal banking, West Coast Community Bank offers competitive deposit solutions and consumer banking services. The bank is recognized as a leading SBA lender in Santa Cruz County and Silicon Valley, reflecting its strong support for local businesses.
BNP Paribas is a leading bank in Europe with an international reach. It has a presence in 65 countries, with more than 190,000 employees, including more than 145,000 in Europe. BNP Paribas holds leading positions in its three major operating divisions: ⚆ Commercial, Personal Banking & Services for all the Groups retail banking networks and several specialised businesses, including BNP Paribas Personal Finance and Arval; ⚆ Investment & Protection Services for savings, investment and protection solutions; ⚆ Corporate & Institutional Banking, which is focused on corporate and institutional clients. The Group helps all its clients (individuals, community associations, entrepreneurs, SMEs, corporates and institutional clients) to realise their projects through solutions spanning financing, investment, savings and protection insurance. In Europe, the Group has four domestic markets (Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg) and BNP Paribas Personal Finance is the European leader in consumer lending. BNP Paribas is rolling out its integrated retail-banking model in Mediterranean countries, in Turkey, in Eastern Europe and a large network in the western part of the United States. In its Corporate & Institutional Banking and Investment & Protection Services activities, BNP Paribas also enjoys top positions in Europe, a strong presence in the Americas as well as a solid and fast-growing business in Asia-Pacific. To learn more about our social media terms and Data Protection Notice: https://group.bnpparibas/en/data-protection