Venture capital market

Venture capital market: financing and structuring 

We are one of the more vibrant teams of advisers to the venture capital market. We support technology companies seeking financing – in early and later rounds – as well as VC funds and individual investors. Our extensive experience enables us to offer clients transaction and legal solutions tailored to their specificities and needs. Operating as a universal law firm offering advice in over 40 different specialisations enables us to support clients across the full spectrum of legal and tax issues related to the operation of emerging companies and venture capital funds. Our expertise extends to all sectors of the modern economy. However, we focus on highly regulated areas such as life sciences, fintech, energy and defence. We also work with a network of leading law firms from jurisdictions closest to innovations and venture capital projects, regularly drawing on the best standards. 

Advice for emerging companies

Cooperation with founders is always a long-term commitment for us. We strive to learn as much as possible about the technology and the problems our clients are looking to resolve. We work together with them to develop solutions that are designed to secure their interests to the fullest extent and to ensure the company's unfettered growth. 

We advise emerging companies primarily in the process of raising the capital required for their development. We provide founders with negotiating and legal support during funding rounds implemented by Polish and foreign venture capital funds, CVC, family offices and business angels (convertible loans).

Other areas in which we advise are:  

• structuring and organising founder relations, 
• resolving disputes between cap table participants, 
• negotiations with private and public investors, 
• issues involving intellectual property rights, 
• labour law issues (including ESOPs and other incentive schemes), 
• company structuring in Poland and the USA. 

With full responsibility, we can support projects at every stage of the activity, including in the area of international scaling, acquisition processes (M&A), listing on the regulated market and NewConnect (IPO), to effective exit. 

We offer outstanding emerging companies unique cooperation in the DZP | Future programme, in which the law firm's involvement goes beyond the role of legal adviser. We provide participants with access to the law firm's extensive network, actively support fundraising and recruitment of key collaborators, and facilitate outreach to clients and foreign partners. We act in the conviction that, by supporting qualified projects, we are making a contribution to the development of the Polish ecosystem of technology companies. 

Advice for investors 

We provide legal and tax support to investors with diverse business profiles and scale of operations. Using tried and tested instruments, we reduce transactional risks, shorten the investment process and optimise the exploitation of business opportunities.  

We have extensive transaction experience in providing services to investment funds and other financial institutions from Poland and foreign jurisdictions. An important part of our advice is the representation of business angels, family offices and investor syndicates.  

In venture capital and venture debt financing rounds, we advise in line with current international standards and trends, taking into account the specificity of the Polish market and the solutions typically applied on it. We focus on the time- and cost-effectiveness of advice, and our network of contacts in the investor community and among leading foreign law firms operating on the venture capital market enables us to effectively support fundraising and co-investment processes as well. 

Our expertise in setting up different types of investment vehicle and the experience we have gained in working for public capital providers has given us a thorough understanding of the specifics of and regulatory requirements for participants in funding rounds at all stages of development and on every scale. Through our participation in an international network of cooperating law firms, we offer comprehensive assistance with fund formation, structuring and registration processes in the most relevant jurisdictions such as Ireland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Germany, Malta and the USA (Delaware). 

We also: 

• participate in the creation and provide day-to-day services to leading CVC funds in Poland;
• advise professional management teams on the structuring of regulated and unregulated investment vehicles;
• draft and negotiate statutory documentation, by-laws, management contracts, agreements with depositaries, and contracts with all other entities providing services to funds and fund managers; 
• support our clients in the legal and regulatory aspects of fund operations, including distribution, cross-border operations and compliance;
• represent investors (institutional, individual and family offices) in their investment activities as limited partners in investment funds in Poland and other jurisdictions.