Business start-ups and spin-outs

Our experienced team is multidisciplinary and includes specialists in corporate, employment, tax, IP and venture capital, giving you access to rounded advice on areas relevant to your start-up or spin-out.

• We are a leading adviser in spin-outs, having advised on over 120 spin-outs from universities and research institutions throughout the UK. We regularly provide training on spin-outs and topics to key stakeholders in spin-outs and advise university technology transfer offices and investors in spin-outs on their approach, processes and documentation. Our lawyers authored a suite of precedents and know-how on university spin-outs published by Practical Law Company, the leading supplier of know-how to the UK’s legal profession.
• Our relationships with our start-up and early stage business clients often span many years, during which we work with them to get them investor ready, raise capital, scale-up their business and operations, expand to international markets and, for some, help achieve their high multiple return exits.
• Spin-outs and start-ups we’ve worked with include:
  • PredictImmune, a spin-out from the University of Cambridge developing prognostic tests for immune-mediated conditions, on its £4.7 million syndicated financing involving Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds, The University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund IV, Parkwalk Advisors and Wren Capital.
  • Grapeshot, an AdTech business, which recently sold to Oracle. We advised them for 10+ years on a series of equity and debt fundraisings, employment arrangements, commercial contracts and its UK real estate interests.

We have built very strong working relationships with many of our start-up and spin-out clients over several years, including:

• Grapeshot
• Secret Escapes
• DeepMind Technologies
• Elevaate
• PredictImmune
• PragmatIC Printing
• Imagen
• Sphere Fluidics
• Mercia Technologies Group
• Cambridge Enterprise Limited