Cowen Group, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an investment bank. The company provides research, brokerage, and investment banking services to companies and institutional investor clients primarily in the healthcare, technology, telecommunications, alternative energy, consumer, and aerospace and defense sectors in the United States and internationally. It primarily trades common stocks and listed options on behalf of its clients and has relationships with approximately 1,000 institutional investor clients. The company also provides strategic advisory and capital raising services to public and private companies; and offers a range of advisory services in relation to mergers, acquisitions, and similar corporate finance matters. Its capital raising services are principally focused on public and private equity products, including private placements of equity, initial public offerings, follow-on public offerings, and convertible offerings. In addition, the company manages a portfolio of merchant banking and venture capital investments. Cowen Group was founded in 1918 and is headquartered in New York, New York with additional offices in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, San Francisco, London, and Geneva.