Venture Capital

Leading venture capital lawyers with deep industrial and global expertise

Our team led by Konstantin Olefir brings together experienced specialists in legal advice on venture capital and other alternative investment, investment funds, exits and sale / acquisition of TMT-business in the TMT sector.

We provide comprehensive legal support to funds, corporations, TMT-companies and family offices at every stage of the investment cycle – from structuring and negotiating basic terms of financing to the acquisition of a company by a strategic purchaser or IPO.

Our lawyers with profound expertise in corporate law have advised on more than 70 venture capital transactions both in Russia and other markets (the U.S., England and Wales, UAE, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan etc.). Our team also has in-depth industry expertise in the technology and telecommunications sector and includes specialists in intellectual property and IT business regulation, AI, personal and big data processing.

Our venture capital practice and our team members are recommended as Tier 1 advisers by “Pravo-300” rating in “Corporate Law / Transactions & M&A (High Market)”, “Corporate Law / Consulting (High Market)” and “TMT (telecommunications, media and technologies)”.

Lawyers of the practice advise clients in the following areas:

Later stage and early stage venture capital deals: equity investment and convertible instruments
Acquisitions by strategic investors (including multi-stage purchases) / sale of business by its founders and investors
Acquisitions for integration into corporate business verticals
Assets deals (transfer of IP / other assets) and acqui-hiring
Comprehensive legal due diligence of target businesses
Preparation for going public / pre-IPO placements
Formation and restructuring of investment funds (including investment / limited partnership agreements and management rules for closed-end investment funds)
Advice on participation of fund managers and investors in investment funds
ESOP and other employee incentive programs
Restructuring of intellectual property ownership
Preparation of the EULA, other user documentation and privacy policies
Regulation of IT, artificial intelligence, processing of personal and big data
License and franchising agreements

Our team experience includes advising:

investment funds and corporations, private investors and their syndicates, as well as family offices on dozens of venture deals (from seed to later stages) and secondary investments;

software, SaaS, e-commerce, artificial intelligence and big data, EdTech, MedTech, MarTech, and other companies on dozens of equity financing deals, convertible loans, SAFEs;

Yandex in relation to investing in the MedTech service "Diagnosis at Home" using complex AI solutions and developed medical devices, which is provided in the Russian Federation and the CIS countries;

the Voskhod venture fund in a number of venture deals, including investing in the FoodTech startup Qummy assisting to launch smart cafes for hotels and gas stations;

a holding company in the taxi and cargo transportation sector in connection with the acquisition of the Russian taxi aggregator business from a joint venture of the largest Russian bank and a media giant; and

a number of clients on support of creation of private equity and venture capital funds managing over 60 billion rubles.