Corporate Finance

Equity Finance

Whether you are investor or investee company, we offer specialist expertise to those participating in or conducting rounds of equity investment, exit events and other private equity funded transactions.

Our experienced solicitors can manage investment rounds and transactions tailored to your company’s requirements, timeframes and business plan. With a broad range of experience, our corporate team are capable of ensuring that any transactional work is performed within the regulatory schemes which private companies commonly operate such as SEIS / EIS, EMI option schemes as well ensure FCA compliance when marketing such investments.

Our expertise is not limited to advising investee companies, we act for number of investment funds, high net worths, investor syndicates, family offices and VCs on a broad range of areas, including:

• advance subscription agreements / SAFEs;
• articles of association;
• capital re-organisations;
• FCA financial promotions;
• future fund advisory;
• investment agreements;
• managing SEIS / EIS qualifying investment rounds;
• mergers & acquisitions (please see here for further details);
• pre-emptive open offers;
• share buybacks;
• share capital calculations;
• shareholders’ agreements;
• spin outs;
• subscription agreements;
• takeovers; and
• venture capital related work (please see below).

Venture Capital

Bootstrapping, pre-seed, Series A, the concepts surrounding early-stage investment may be confusing, but with our expertise and assistance we can help you navigate the realm of start-up and venture capital investment.

Some of our clients have been with us since their first investment round or in some instances incorporation! Numerous clients have now received Series A investment (£1million to £15million), whilst others have exited the companies they founded. By assisting clients through each stage of their funding journeys we are able to continually provide pragmatic advice and foster lasting relationships.

We act for some of UK’s most prominent and active early stage / VC investors, including nominee funds seeking SEIS / EIS relief on behalf of their beneficiaries. Our solicitors can utilise their extensive experience to construct agreements and constitutions that serve to comfort investors in area otherwise laden with risk.

With a market leading SEIS / EIS advisory practice we can facilitate SEIS / EIS investments into companies where the stringent qualifying criteria may be deemed as too large a hurdle to overcome. We can deploy a plethora of practical (and successful) solutions that enable companies to access SEIS / EIS funding, where at first glance such access may be difficult. For further details regarding our SEIS / EIS expertise please see here.