Ola Lauritzson, one of the pioneers of internet distribution of initial public offerings in Europe, has left EO, the largest European firm operating in the online IPO market.

Lauritzson founded epo.com in 1998 when he was fresh out of university in Sweden, and built it into one of the two likely winners in the European online IPO market. In December last year epo.com was bought by main rival EO, which is headed by John St John, the former global head of equity capital markets at Lehman Brothers.