Ramius was founded in 1994.

Ramius was founded in 1994 by Peter Cohen (former Chairman and CEO of Shearson Lehman Brothers) with Jeffrey Solomon (former CAO and Head of Corporate Development at Republic New York Securities Corp.). They were joined by Thomas Strauss (former President of Salomon Brothers and Vice Chairman of Salomon, Inc.) and Morgan Stark (former President and CEO of Chemical Securities). 

Through its predecessor and its affiliates, Ramius has been providing discretionary investment management services to U.S. and international private investors, pension funds, endowments, foundations, corporations, insurance companies and other fiduciaries since 1994. Ramius was organized and took its present form in 1997 in order to accept additional equity capital, which allowed it to accelerate its growth and to continue to build a sustainable institutional platform for its absolute return programs.

In 2004, Ramius merged its fund of funds business with Bayerische Hypo-Vereinsbank AG (HVB) to create Ramius Fund of Funds Group. During this time, the Fund of Funds Group was jointly owned by Ramius and HVB and managed and controlled exclusively by Ramius.

In 2009, Ramius combined with Cowen Group, Inc. in a transaction that created a diversified financial services company. The new Cowen Group, Inc. comprises two business units, Ramius and Cowen & Company. The Ramius business unit operates the combined company's alternative investment management business, and the Cowen & Company business unit will continue to run the company's leading growth-oriented investment banking franchise, as well as its research and brokerage capabilities. The new company is positioned to take advantage of the significant opportunities resulting from the historic changes within the economy and the financial services sector. The transaction creates a well-capitalized company with a complementary balance of capabilities and significant potential for long-term growth and profitability.