Business start-ups and spin-outs

The start of a business’ life is an important and exciting time. We can help you navigate this process smoothly, providing expertise to scale-up your business and get investment ready.

We advise on all aspects of the start-up or spin-out journey but also understand scale-ups and exits, so can guide you through the whole life of your business.

To help get you started we offer LaunchPad, a resource for early stage businesses setting out how to form and finance your business and highlighting issues to consider. We also offer an hour’s free consultation to give you our expert insight and discuss your start-up plans.

Our Technology Law Toolkit gives you free access to some helpful documents, including a confidentiality agreement, intellectual property assignment, employment contract and website terms of use.

Our experience

We're 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.