Square 1 Bank sees opportunities for growth in later-stage venture capital business as the entire industry shifts more money that way, but CEO Doug Bowers stresses that early-stage deals remain top priority.

By the way, the Durham bank is continuing to hire.

In discussing quarterly earnings Wednesday, Bowers said the bank was expecting to add close to 30 jobs this year.

Square 1 (Nasdaq: SQBK) did top analysts’ expectations by 4 cents on earnings and also outperformed on revenue.

So where does Square 1 see growth in this new year?

Aaron Deer analyst Sandler O’Neill posted that question in a conference call.

“With respect to the strategy to move more toward later stage, can you talk about the pricing differential on early stage credits versus later stage?”

Bower’s reply:

“Yes, it comes in two forms, there is less warrant opportunity traditionally in that arena and you do have typically a little less in margin, some of what you make up for all of that is a higher degree of traditional banking activity being foreign exchange, credit card and you also have a bigger depositary base opportunity just given the size of the company.

“But you know I should say Aaron, I want to be sure here that our brand is and will remain the early stage business, so the greater, greater world of early stage tech and life sciences remains a big part of our focus. But we do believe and we now do have the capacity to be more available and more capable in the later stage world. I should also say that companies are holding on longer rounds, are bigger and so all of that is causing a degree of increased opportunity generally speaking, there are simply more later-stage opportunity out there.”

Venture capital funding in 2014 hit levels not seen in the decade since the “dot com” boom, and Square 1 operates nationally. Fund raising also swelled last year, but startups still need loans and sometimes agree to warrants for partial ownership stakes.

In fact, Square 1 announced a new credit facility on Wednesday.

The full transcript of the call can be read at SeekingAlpha: http://seekingalpha.com/article/2837066-square-1-financials-sqbk-ceo-doug-bowers-on-q4-2014-results-earnings-call-transcript

The full financials are available as well: http://seekingalpha.com/pr/12260306-square-1-financial-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2014-results