Swati Rao Metlapalli

Swati is an investment banker who leads the Transportation and Infrastructure sector vertical for BNP Paribas in North America. She is based in New York and is focused on working closely with companies across the transportation, infrastructure, tech-enabled logistics and supply chain businesses. Her expertise includes working with private equity funds, infrastructure funds, sovereign wealth investors and asset managers on investments within the sector. She has advised and executed transactions for global companies like FedEx, UPS, DPDHL, Brookfield, as well as disruptive innovators like Uber Freight, and ShipBob. She has significant experience in mergers and acquisitions, strategic assignments, financial transactions including IPOs, common equity and equity-linked financings, structured securities, investment grade and high yield debt issuances. She has been a long-term thought partner and advisor to industry leaders and has worked on marquee transactions over $100 billion in transaction value.

Prior to joining BNP Paribas in September 2024, Swati spent over a decade at Citigroup’s Industrials investment banking group in New York and also at Lazard’s TMT M&A practice (2016 – 2017). She was included in Business Insider’s 2022 list of “Rising Stars on Wall Street”.
She started her career as a systems engineer before pursuing graduate education in the United States. Prior to investment banking, Swati pursued opportunities across the globe in Singapore and India (systems engineer), Lugano – Switzerland (commodities trading).

As a first generation immigrant, she is passionate about diversity. equity and inclusion, and is actively involved in talent development. Swati earned her Dual Masters from the University of Michigan – Master of Science in Financial Engineering and Master of Arts in Applied Economics. She also graduated with Distinction and earned her Bachelors in Engineering from the University of Mumbai.