From Strategic Investing to Investment Banking – Need Advice on Direction

I’m currently in my second year of university and doing a summer internship at an investment company / industrial serial acquirer, with €160M in revenue and around 40 subsidiaries. My day-to-day revolves around business development, but I’ve recently started getting exposure to M&A – assisting with due diligence, strategy, and market screening. They’ve offered me a 75% part-time role during my final year of studies, with potential for full-time afterward.

Before the internship, I was involved in the early stages of a trading startup focused on environmental markets – Guarantees of Origin, EU ETS, and Carbon Credits. It’s a three-person team, and over the past 8 months, we’ve closed €6.7M in revenue with a 15% net margin. I’ve taken a break from the role over the summer.

Here’s where I’m torn: my original goal has always been to break into Investment Banking, ideally through M&A or industry coverage. The investment company offers relevant deal exposure in a more structured environment, and the brand might be more recognizable to banks and recruiters. But the startup role has given me strong commercial experience, fast-paced deal execution, and significant income potential and also talking to huge AM like Blackrock and huge HF – more than I’d expect in early IB roles.

At the same time, I’m fully aware of the regulatory risk in the renewable energy certificate space. There’s always a concern that “Ursula von der Leyen wakes up one day and revamps the entire system,” which adds uncertainty to the long-term outlook.

So the question is:

• Should I stay with the investment company, build further M&A exposure, and use that as a stepping stone into Investment Banking? (I’m mainly interested in Mergers & Acquisitions or Equity Capital Markets. DCM could also be interesting, but it’s not my top pick.)
• Or should I return to the environmental markets firm, embrace the upside, and risk being seen as too niche or too commercially focused when applying to IB roles later? (I will probably make a lot more money in S&T than IB with this particular environmental commodity firm). 

Would really appreciate perspectives – especially from anyone who’s broken into IB through less traditional backgrounds or faced a similar early-career trade-off.