BLS-TMT-0001-Fast Growth Brochure (spreads)

Supporting Fast Growth Businesses

Through Every Stage of the Growth Cycle

About Irwin Mitchell

Irwin Mitchell is a law firm that seeks out creative business
solutions for commercial organisations and private individuals.

Our clients find it refreshing that we can create appropriate solutions for them, which are
explained in a clear and easily understandable manner.

Partner-led expertise
Most of our teams are led by partners who have worked at leading City law firms. The discipline
and technical expertise that this brings is combined with a more flexible pricing structure and a
relationship-focused approach.

Legal Specialisms

I feel very comfortable with Irwin Mitchell. They are super responsive, Corporate/M&A Share schemes
they approach things in the right way, they can do things on time and IT, IP & Commercial Tax
with very short notice. They understand technology and fast growth
business, and they’re flexible. Fundamentally they understand what we Disputes Banking & Finance
want, what we’re trying to do, and they help us to do it. They have been Employment Immigration
friendly and helpful and I would score them 10/10 for value for money. Real Estate Regulatory
Private Wealth
James Poulter, Founder, Pronto Technology Limited Data Protection

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Our Technology team Engaging with our market

Our Technology team works in partnership with innovative We support and partner on a number of events across the technology sector. We hosted
businesses to save them time and money by ensuring that The Bank of the Future, one of the events held during London Technology Week, which
their legal risks are managed in ways that enhance corporate examined the disruptive nature of fintech, and we have also presented at events organised by
strategy and plans for growth. We work with businesses at Startcelerate, InterTech and FinTech Connect.
different stages of the development pipeline, from those that We provide a regular programme of communications to our clients and contacts. These include
are just starting out, through to well-established and profitable a quarterly bulletin covering market developments and legal updates and a weekly technology
companies. blog, looking at the diverse and disruptive world of technology.

Through our wide network of contacts we have relationships with investors, founders, With you from startup to exit
intermediaries and leading academic centres of excellence. This allows us to add significant value Irwin Mitchell is perfectly positioned to advise fast growth companies all the way through their
to companies operating within, and interested in investing in, the technology sector. life cycle. It is valuable to be able to stay with the same advisers throughout as, when it comes
to exit, those advisers should have an in depth understanding of the business as well as a strong
Highlight from industry and academia relationship with the management team.
Our Technology team supports the Web Science faculty at the University of Southampton, home We advise businesses on all manner of exit, whether by way of private equity, trade sale or IPO.
to distinguished members of the technology world, such as Dame Wendy Hall and Sir Nigel For example:
Shadbolt.
Private Equity: We advised one of the founding shareholders of Tastecard on a £100m
We are members of the Web Science Doctoral Training Centre Advisory Board with other members equity disposal and loan note repayment to PE house, Waterland.
including the likes of Microsoft, BBC, British Library and SOCA. We collaborate with institutions Trade Sales: We advised Conmar Holdings Inc on the sale of Fireboy-Xintex Limited, a UK
such as Ada, The National College of Digital Skills. subsidiary of a US company.
IPO: We recently acted for Boku’s broker, Peel Hunt, on Boku’s £45 million fundraising
Such a role gives us privileged access to current thinking and academic work being undertaken in through a placing - £15 million was for Boku itself and £30 million was for its selling
the field of web science, both by students and by the research functions of global brands. shareholders. When listed, the business had a market cap of £125 million. We also acted for
Peel Hunt on Warehouse REIT’s £150 million IPO with all £150 million raised for Warehouse
Some of our technology clients Movebubble REIT, and for the biotech business, Destiny Pharma, on its £65 million IPO with £15 million
Aphex Pinipa raised. We have been advising Destiny Pharma over the course of many years and, at the time
of listing on the London Stock Exchange, the company was still pre-revenue.
Apogee Corporation Playnetwork
Avesco plc Purdicom “James Paton-Philip was excellent at understanding what was needed,
Semtech and understanding the context. He was proactive, went the extra mile
Azzurri Communications Softcat
Bond International plc and delivered on time.”
SureView Systems
Centrix Software telent Simon Evans, Hanbury Strategy & Communications
Critical Software Technologies
Uniplaces 5
Forgerock
Intense Technologies

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Supporting fast growth businesses

Irwin Mitchell has considerable experience of working in all
stages of the fast growth space, including:

• Entrepreneurs and early stage businesses
• Angel, venture capital and private equity backed companies
• Angel, venture capital and private equity investors
• Management teams.

Our full service offering, professional relationships and national network of offices allow us to
partner with our clients throughout their entire growth cycle, from start-up to exit, and to provide
a service that is responsive, solution-focused and competitive. We typically advise on:

Founders’ agreements Privacy and data protection
Seed funding (including SEIS/EIS) Commercial agreements
IP and brand protection
Venture capital investments Tax and share schemes
Private equity led buy outs Employment
M&A (shares and assets) Disputes and litigation
Real estate
Reorganisations Company secretarial
Joint ventures Private client services
Directors’ duties and governance Regulatory
Website terms and conditions
Immigration

Great offering for start ups, they want to help. We have been named as one of the most active legal advisers for mergers and acquisitions in
the UK. Analysis by Experian, the global information services company, has ranked our firm in 8th
Faith Forster, Co founder, Pinipa place within its UK league table, based on the number of corporate transactions we have advised
clients on since the start of 2017.
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Examples of our recent fast growth work include: Acted for HireHand (a business that connects small food enterprises with a talent pool) on its
fundraisings.
For early stage businesses Advised Q Bot, the UK’s leading robotics provider specialising in the construction and energy
industry, on its £305,000 angel investment round through ClearlySo, Wroxhall Investors
Advised HANetf, Europe’s first independent ETF “White Label” provider, on its seed Group of Business Angels and Curious White. Q Bot provides robotic solutions for the built
investment round. HANetf is led by co-chief executives Hector McNeil and Nik Bienkowski. environment for the construction, maintenance, and upgrade of buildings and industrial
The pair helped found and establish ETF Securities before founding and launching Boost ETP. assets.
Boost ETP later became WisdomTree Europe which, following its acquisition by WisdomTree in Assisted the new UK operations of well established Indian software company Intense
2014, they led until May 2016. Technologies on securing its first key customer agreement with Vodafone to supply services
Advising B9lab, which delivers education, advisory & research on blockchain and decentralised across a number of jurisdictions.
applications, on various matters. Advised Snowplow Analytics a data analytics firm growing rapidly in the big data sphere, on
Acted for Aphex (a business that builds software tools to promote efficiency and data-driven initially reworking and improving their customer facing standard form documents.
analysis in the construction industry) on its seed financing. Assisted financial services software and IT services provider Formicary on the review and
Advised Pronto (a food ordering and delivery app) on its £1 million fundraising led by improvement of their standard terms and conditions, and to provide them with on going
investors including Playfair Capital, Ballpark Ventures and The London Co-Investment Fund. support and advice.
Advising GetAgent, an estate agent rating platform, on its £310,000 seed-round fundraise Advised Small Pond Recordings on their first signings to the label, and providing on going
led by Ascension Ventures and which also included early-stage investment fund Seedcamp, advice.
former managing director of the Mail Online, James Bromley, founder of Lokku, Ed Freyfogle Advised Fun Learning Studios (a film production company producing YouTube videos for
and various other angel investors. children) on their joint venture with a major children’s book publisher.
Acted for Pinipa, an enterprise cloud based project engagement tool, which aims to make Advised Blackbox, a company revolutionising technology on our train network, on a software
collaborating with stakeholders easy, on its investment round led by London based early stage services and licensing agreement.
VC investor Passion Capital. Assisted Weliketowork with the drafting of their customer facing terms and conditions, and
Advised Movebubble, the world’s first peer to peer community marketplace for property on their partnership agreement with a large national company.
owners, renters and local contractors, on its £450,000 seed financing round. Advised WalkingRed on employment law issues and the drafting of their online terms and
Advised Hide My Ass!, the provider of free and paid services for the online privacy, security conditions.
and anonymity market and ranked 9th on the Sunday Times 2014 Tech Track 100 list, on Advising UniZest who have been selected by Barclays to be part of its Techstars powered
general corporate matters. accelerator; an intensive 13-week programme designed to accelerate start-up enterprises.
Advised Nerdeo, an online platform for professionals within the independent film, TV and
commercial industry, on the terms of a founders’ agreement and drafted website terms and “What all start-up ventures really need is high quality professional
conditions and privacy policy. assistance and advice. With James and his team at Irwin Mitchell, we
Advised Rorcus on a software development consultancy agreement with a new entrant into have been very lucky to find an incredibly supportive legal partner who
the UK retail banking sector.
actively assists us in building our business.”
Advised Byta (a solution for privately sending and receiving digital audio) on various matters.
Peter Miles, UniZest CEO
Advised First Echelon on contractual structures and drafted all the customer facing
documentation to take the business to launch. The company facilitates the maintenance 9
of legacy aircraft by bringing together operators and suppliers in online marketplaces and
communities.

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For management teams For angel, venture capital, private equity and corporate investors

Advised the management team of Envision Pharma Limited on their $80m management Acted for telent, a £400m turnover UK tech services business on an investment in another
buyout funded by US mid market private equity house The Halifax Group. Envision Pharma IT company, acquiring a 25% stake in CNS Group, structured as part acquisition from
is a global technology and scientific communication company that works with the world’s management and part direct investment into the target.
leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies. Advised The Halifax Group, a US mid market private equity fund, on numerous transactions,
Acted for the management team of Medica Reporting Limited on their £35m management including its acquisition of Bluebird Care Franchises Limited through its portfolio company
buyout funded by UK mid market private equity house CBPE. Medica is the UK’s leading Interim Healthcare for an undisclosed consideration. Bluebird Care has more than 180
provider of teleradiology reporting services and operates the country’s largest remote franchise operations, which provide non medical care services in England, Wales, Scotland,
radiology network. Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Advised a London based family office on its investment into a television company.
Acted for recruitment technology company TribePad on its management buy out. Acted for The Collective Partners on its investment into Love the Sales, a site that displays
high street sales for consumers to browse and shop.
For angel, venture capital, private equity and institutionally backed companies Advised The Collective Partners on its investment into Supmenow Limited, which has
developed Sup, a free app that makes chance encounters with friends happen more often by
Advised the vendors on the disposal of Engage ESM, a leading provider in the enterprise- sending notifications when friends are close by.
service management sector to Atos, the French-listed global leader in digital transformation. Advised The Collective Partners on its investment into LIC Inc Limited. LIC has created a
Advised Uniplaces, a student accommodation platform, on its $24m Series A investment process for creating ice-lollies for adults by inventing a process to freeze high alcohol drinks.
round led by Atomico and existing investors Octopus Ventures (one of the largest Series A Advised global digital communications business Next Fifteen Communications Group
investment rounds in Europe in 2015). plc as lead investor on a £1m investment round into Phrasee Ltd, a London-based MarTech
Acted for Interim Healthcare Inc, a portfolio company of The Halifax Group, on the business which uses artificial intelligence and advanced language technologies to quantify,
acquisition of Bluebird Care Franchises Limited and related equity and debt funding. Bluebird generate and optimize email subject lines, and other language types, that increase opens,
Care Franchises has more than 180 franchise operations, which provide non medical care clicks and conversions.
services, with headquarters in Hampshire. The Halifax Group is a US based private equity Advised US-based Toba Capital on its $30m investment into Seal Software; a UK company
house with nearly $1 billion under management and is supported by blue chip investors from valued at more than $200m.
within the US and round the world.
Advised Centrix Software Limited on several equity finance rounds where in excess of “We’ve always historically used other firms. Irwin Mitchell have a very
£16m has been invested. Centrix Software focuses on software rationalisation and workspace high likelihood of being selected for future work…very pleased with
management. the standard of work, the care and the way that we have been treated,
Advised the vendors on the disposal of Artra Limited to Amtech Limited for an undisclosed we’ve been made to feel we’re an important client for them…it’s been
consideration. Amtech is backed by UK mid market private equity company Primary Group.
Artra is an enterprise solution for construction management, 3D plant asset management and very good.”
asset lifecycle management.
Technology client
Advised telent on its acquisition of ICT and IP Networking solutions specialist Telindus UK.
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Advised Envision Pharma Group on its acquisition by Ardian, which saw the group being
bought from its existing partners The Halifax Group.

10 Supporting Fast Growth Businesses

Series A funding: a case study Uniplaces co founder, Ben Grech, praised the support Uniplaces received from Irwin Mitchell in
getting their business this far:
Irwin Mitchell advised Uniplaces in one of Europe’s largest
Series A venture capital fundraising successes of 2015. “They took time to really understand our aims and objectives and we
feel confident that they have provided Uniplaces with the tools that it
“Uniplaces is an excellent example of how we work with fast-growth
technology businesses. We support entrepreneurs and their businesses needs to continue its strategy for growth and expansion.”
through their entire growth cycle, from start-up, through fundraising and
Helping Uniplaces realise their plans
beyond to exit.” London corporate Partner, James Paton-Philip, led the Irwin Mitchell team advising Uniplaces.
James has been acting for Uniplaces since its incorporation.
The pioneering Lisbon based startup was founded in 2012 by three ex university classmates and
has been billed as ‘the Airbnb of students’. Users of Uniplaces.com are able to search for and He said “It has been a pleasure to have advised Uniplaces on this significant transaction. We were
book affordable student accommodation safely and easily in locations all over the world. The able to draw on the experience of our multi-disciplinary team of technology sector specialists to
website operates in 38 cities. successfully complete what was a strategically important and high-profile deal for the company.”

The funding round was led by Atomico and included investments from Octopus Ventures and
Shilling Capital Partners as well as a mix of existing and new angel investors, including veteran
internet entrepreneur Alex Chesterman, who founded successful property website Zoopla in 2008.

The future for Uniplaces
With significant new funding, Uniplaces is now able to make substantial progress against its
business plan and objectives and continue its global expansion. We very much look forward to
continue being part of that journey with them.

James Paton-Philip

Partner, Corporate
T: +44 (0)20 7650 3861
E: [email protected]

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Partner led, City expertise Key contacts

Relationship building, delivering added value, responsiveness, Adam Kaucher
investing time and employing a high level of expertise are
all characteristics of Irwin Mitchell’s fee earners that clients Partner, Corporate
frequently praise in feedback interviews. In addition, clients
benefit from our ability to attract and retain lawyers from top T: +44 (0)161 259 0849
City and international firms and most of our teams are led by E: [email protected]
partners who have worked at leading firms. Adam has a broad base of cross-border and domestic transactional experience, including IPO’s,
fundraising, acquisitions, disposals, and investments. He has advised angel, venture and private
The discipline and technical expertise that this brings is combined with a more flexible pricing equity investors, founders, sellers and management teams on transactions ranging from early stage
structure (including fixed fees) and a partner led relationship focused approach. fundraising to exit.
Industry expertise
In addition to offering clients a high level of technical expertise, we have a number of lawyers Daniel Hedley
who, from working either in house or directly in industry, bring a unique viewpoint to many of the
issues we see; this is particularly the case in our technology group. Partner, Commercial
By way of example, Daniel Hedley worked in the IT industry for a number of years as a systems
administrator and integrator before turning to law. He has a detailed understanding of both the T: +44 (0)1293 742 717
technical and commercial issues affecting the sector. He trained as a solicitor with top global law E: [email protected]
firm Clifford Chance and joined Irwin Mitchell in January 2014.
Daniel is a specialist IT lawyer, and worked in technical and service delivery roles in the IT industry
Good at pushing lawyers on the other side, who maybe weren’t as for a number of years before retraining as a lawyer. He focuses in particular on software licensing
engaged with their principals. and development, IT service contracts, outsourcing and cloud services.

Technology client Aurelia Butler-Ball

Very strong at keeping the client totally up to date with what’s going on. Solicitor, Commercial

Technology client T: +44 (0)1293 742 947
E: [email protected]
14 Supporting Fast Growth Businesses Aurelia is an experienced commercial lawyer advising clients in the media and entertainment
industries. She advises both individuals and businesses working in music, film, TV and digital media.
She holds a certificate in Legal Rights and Trade Practices in the Creative Industries from UCL
Faculty of Laws.

Alan Lewis

Partner, Employment

T: +44 (0)7814 384 745
E: [email protected]

Alan is renowned among clients for his dedicated approach and attention to detail when advising
on employment law issues. He ensures that his clients have the necessary measures in place to
deter and prevent loss of information and he has pursued and defended many restrictive covenant
cases. Alan helps tech companies to make changes smoothly and with minimal risk to the business.

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@TheTechLawyer

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