Equity fundraising, borrowing and lending

We know that financing for your business can be crucial at a number of stages, from startups and growing businesses to acquisitions to mature growth and refinancing.

We can help both investors and businesses at all stages, whether looking to put in place traditional or more innovative sources of finance, including:

• institutional lending (including bank borrowing)
• EIS and SEIS
• angel investor funding
• friends and family funding
• private equity and venture capital investment
• crowdfunding and other alternative investment mechanisms

Our extensive expertise means that our corporate lawyers and solicitors can anticipate lenders’ or investors’ requirements and concerns to guide you through the process accordingly, ensuring transactions do not become derailed and unduly protracted.

As well as advising on technical legal matters (including security), we can help streamline the process by providing broader assistance on other aspects, including:

• tax implications and structuring to make the most of available reliefs and exemptions
• regulatory issues
• business disputes

• Early-stage tech start-up — we acted for a start-up developing e-mail marketing software and raised around £1 million from a series of investors. The amount being invested was significant for a tech start-up and represented an interesting challenge given the number of parties involved and the fact that negotiations fell either side of the EU referendum.
• Business borrowing — we have extensive experience of acting on more traditional lending transactions, for lenders and borrowers. We have particular experience in the real estate finance sector, both in terms of borrowing to finance acquisitions but also in other related contexts such as property development and real estate joint ventures, working closely with our colleagues in the real estate planning and construction team. The flexibility of our lawyers means that we advise on arrangements ranging from relatively small facilities to loans of over £100 million.
• Demerger and subsequent investment — we acted in the demerger of a direct-mail software and services business and simultaneous fund raising. A substantial sum was invested in the demerged entity from two angel investors (one of whom sought EIS status for their investment) and a strategic commercial investor. The terms of the investment included a performance ratchet under which the proportion of investment shares may be reduced if the company reaches certain performance targets. The combination of our sector expertise and experience of reorganisations and EIS investments meant that we had a comprehensive understanding of the different aspects of the transaction and how they interrelate.