Osborne Clarke has a market leading venture and growth capital practice across Europe, renowned for its work in the technology, financial services, renewable energy and life sciences sectors. We act for clients on fund establishment and on investments across the corporate lifecycle and are able to support growth no matter what is needed.
- For companies and their management teams: We advise on large venture and growth rounds around the globe, typically raising between £10 to £100 million. We handle over 250 investment rounds per year. We also help companies to borrow venture debt facilities, convertible loans and other forms of alternative finance. In addition, we provide incentives, employment, share options, regulatory and IP advice, all specifically focused on venture-backed growth companies in their relevant sector, looking to transform existing markets with their technology.
- Specifically for start-ups: We also advise on much earlier / smaller seed rounds, usually handling over 100 investments in the sub £5 million range per year (typically £250k to £5m). We will always look at each client as a unique opportunity to help with tailored sector focused support. We offer a range of pricing approaches and to build lasting relationships. We also work with many of the leading research institutions, including Imperial College, King’s College London, UCL, Oxford and Cambridge. We try to operate like your in-house lawyers: always available for you, but without the cost of hiring internal expertise.
- For investors: We advise a growing number of top tier international funds and corporate investors on international venture and growth capital investments. These investors turn to us for our market knowledge and hands on experience. We also have a fantastic venture funds formation practice to support our institutional client base, and advise both high profile and emerging GPs on their fund formations with a particular focus on the venture space (we are typically working on 5-10 fund formations at any time), providing legal, regulatory and tax support as required.
- Exits: We are there at all of the key moments, and actively look to help companies (and their investors) get the best terms possible at exit – be that a trade sale or IPO. We have advised numerous VC-backed companies on trade sales to serial technology acquirers such as Cisco, Google, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft.
Experience
NewVoiceMedia
Advised NewVoiceMedia on a $30m Series F round of funding.
Finanzcheck
Advised Finanzcheck, a German GmbH in Hamburg, on a US$30m investment from HarborVest.
Breath Therapeutics
Advising Breath Therapeutics, a Dutch company, on its EUR€43.5m series A funding round, from GIM, Sofinnova Partners and Glide Healthcare.
Funding Circle
We advised Funding Circle, a UK company, on its US$150m series E round, from DST Global, BlackRock, Temasek, Baillie Gifford (and others).
GV
We advised GV (Google Ventures) on its US$20m investment in Kobalt Music, a UK Company, as part of a US$60m series C round alongside Michael Dell’s family trust.
Raine Ventures
Advised Raine Ventures from San Francisco / New York on their growth funding of German Dojo Madness GmbH in Berlin.
Founders Factory
Advised Founders Factory, a UK company, on five investments from Guardian Media Group, L'Oreal, easyJet and Chinese private equity group, CSG.
Ubiquisys
Advising all shareholders of Ubiquisys on the $320m sale to Cisco.
Nujira
Advising all shareholders of Nujira on the $50m sale to Qualcomm.
Turtle Entertainment
Advising major shareholders of German Turtle Entertainment GmbH from Cologne on the €75m majority sale to Modern Times Group, Sweden.
Social Point
Advising the founders of the Spanish games company, Social Point, on its €250m+ exit to Take-Two Interactive (the games company behind Grand Theft Auto).
