Venture Capital

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Bradley is one of the most active law firms in the southeast in representing emerging growth companies and venture capital funds, family offices, angel investors, and other providers of venture capital. Our attorneys are known for taking a business-minded approach to achieving investment structures and terms that create alignment of interest between venture capital investors and management of the companies in which they invest.

By representing both venture capital investors and emerging growth companies in high-volume venture financings, we are able to stay abreast of the latest venture capital terms, emerging trends, best practices, and transaction structures in markets across the country.

When advising venture capital investors, we invest heavily in fully understanding, and frequently helping them develop, their investment philosophies and strategies. This can include targeted industries and stages of investment, deal sourcing, legal and financial due diligence practices, and investment structures and terms. Further, we often assist our clients with:

  • Identifying and securing limited partners
  • Negotiating side letter agreements and fund extensions with limited partners
  • Arranging portfolio company investments and dispositions
  • Advising representatives serving on portfolio company boards when navigating down rounds and other subsequent equity rounds of funding, bridge loans, employee issues, and liquidity events

By understanding their businesses and markets, we can proactively advise our venture capital clients efficiently and quickly, in a manner that helps them achieve their long-term strategic and financial objectives. One way we ensure efficient and effective engagements is to assemble an interdisciplinary, cross-industry team that focuses on information sharing, creative thinking, and process efficacy.

Lawyers on our venture capital team focus on all areas that our venture capital clients require, including:

  • Corporate – fund formations, fund investments, and disposition of portfolio companies
  • Securities – compliance with the Investment Company Act, Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and Securities Act of 1933
  • Tax – UBTI, ECI, taxation of carried interest, and cross-border analysis and planning
  • ERISA
  • Finance – bank holding company and CRA regulations
  • Intellectual property – due diligence regarding, and the development of strategies for, the intellectual property of portfolio companies

 In addition, our core legal team expands to include lawyers in other areas, such as healthcare compliance, labor and employment, and leasing/real estate.

Our high-volume habit of representing hundreds of emerging growth companies allows us to make highly targeted, mutually beneficial introductions between those companies and venture capital investors. Our intimate knowledge of the investment objectives and parameters of our venture capital fund clients, as well as the needs of our emerging growth company clients, enables us to ensure the greatest probable strategic fit. For that reason, we can offer our venture capital clients a robust “pipeline” of high-quality deal flow.

We similarly add value to our venture capital clients’ portfolio companies by connecting them to debt and equity sources, including mezzanine and bridge loans, SaaS A/R financing, and other alternative financing resources.

Our team members are actively involved in driving the growth and development of the entrepreneurial, technology, and investment industries in our markets, including by serving as thought leaders and founding or serving as leaders or on the boards of several industry organizations and business incubators. Further, our team members speak regularly on venture capital-related topics, including forming venture capital funds, negotiating side letters with limited partners, raising venture capital, structuring venture capital financings, and establishing and growing entrepreneurial and technology ecosystems.