Find Lawyers in Sydney, Australia for Venture Capital Law

Venture capital is money that is provided to fund early stage, emerging growth businesses. Those businesses are typically ones with high growth potential, but with commensurate higher risk profiles. They usually have novel technology or business models in growth industries such as e-commerce, IT, mobile applications, clean technology, life sciences, and specialty pharmaceuticals. Venture capital is invested in exchange for equity in the business and typically occurs after the seed funding round.  Venture capital is typically sought by relatively new, privately held companies that face difficulty in raising capital by other means, such as from banks or the public markets.   

Venture capital lawyers advise venture capital investors, target companies, or a company’s founders at all stages of the investment cycle. They can assist with the establishment of private equity funds, structuring of private equity investments, undertaking legal due diligence on investments, negotiating and documenting of venture capital acquisitions, shareholder agreements, and management incentive plans. They often negotiate and document strategic partnership transactions (such as intellectual property licensing, research and development partnerships, and joint ventures), management buy-outs, leveraged buy-outs, and advise on exit transactions via IPOs, trade sales, or share sales.

Venture capital lawyers are usually the first point of call for emerging growth businesses who will require pragmatic, decisive advice on a broad range of issues, including general corporate governance, intellectual property matters, employment matters, and debt financing and regulatory issues. 

Venture capital lawyers must also possess strong commercial acumen and have an understanding of the client’s technology and industry so that they can makes calls on relevant issues and deliver agreed commercial objectives on time and budget and with the minimum of disruption to their clients’ businesses.