Orrick Advises Skillz on $50 Million Investment in and Partnership with Exit Games

August.25.2021

Deutsch: Orrick berät Skillz bei $50 Millionen Investment in und Partnerschaft mit Exit Games

Orrick advised Skillz, the leading mobile games platform bringing fair and fun competition to players worldwide, on a $50m investment in and a strategic partnership with Exit Games, global developer of Photon, the world’s most advanced synchronous multiplayer gaming technology.

This strategic investment accelerates Skillz's expansion into further popular gaming genres.

A leading online mobile multiplayer games platform, Skillz helps developers build multi-million-dollar franchises by enabling social competition in their games. Leveraging its patented technology, Skillz hosts billions of casual esports tournaments for millions of mobile players worldwide.

Headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, Exit Games is the provider of Photon, the world’s leading real-time multiplayer technology and cloud service for mobile, PC, Mac, Web, Console, virtual reality, artificial reality and mixed reality. Developers are using Photon to create games and applications that offer true synchronous real-time experiences that scale to millions of users.

Skillz was advised by an international Orrick team led by partners Sven Greulich, Benedikt Migdal (both Düsseldorf) and Lynne Hermle (Silicon Valley).

The Orrick team also included partners Daniel Forester, Christian Schröder, Stefan Schultes-Schnitzlein, André Zimmermann, Lars Mesenbrink and Harry Clark, counsel Nils Kürten, senior associates Johannes Rüberg and Julia Schmitz, managing associates Onur Öztürk, Mark Rossbroich, Yumiko Olsen, Robert Weinhold and Julius Schradin as well as associates Ilona Schütz, Carsten Engelings and Marianna Karapetyan from our Düsseldorf, Silicon Valley, Washington, D.C. and New York offices.

Related Lawyers

Dr. Sven Greulich, LL.M. (Cantuar), EMBA Partner, Mergers & Acquisitions, Technology Companies Group

Düsseldorf

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Practice:

Technology & Innovation Sector
Mergers & Acquisitions
Technology Companies Group

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Dr. Sven Greulich, LL.M. (Cantuar), EMBA Partner

Düsseldorf

Sven advises technology companies on complex cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and venture capital as well as growth investments, and provides general corporate counseling.

His clients include technology companies of all stages and their investors. Supported by a global and cross-practice team, he also counsels major corporations and scale-ups on international expansion and growth projects and has a special focus on in- and outbound German/US investments and joint ventures.

Sven is passionate about building a bridge for his clients from Germany to the US and other international technology hubs and to help them succeed in the international market. With a dual background in business and law, an entrepreneurial spirit, and experience in over 300 M&A transactions and financing rounds across many industries, Sven has a unique perspective, which inspires him to find the best strategic and commercially viable solution for his clients.

Sven volunteers with entrepreneur groups at the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management and the RWTH Aachen and regularly lectures at the WHU and the RWTH incubation and innovation centers on venture capital financings, start-up growth and corporate venture capital.

Sven's work has been repeatedly awarded, inter alia

the leading German market publication JUVE lists him as "frequently recommended" for M&A, private equity, as well as corporate advice and - since 2019 - ranks Sven as one of Germany's top 15 attorneys for venture capital, the highest recognition for this category awarded by JUVE (2023/2024);
Chambers ranks him as one of the top 10 venture capital lawyers in Germany (2024);
Legal500 Deutschland includes Sven as "frequently recommended" for M&A (mid-sized deals) as well as private equity (mid-sized deals) and ranks him as a "leading individual" for venture capital (2024); and
in the 2017 edition of its Innovative Lawyers Report Europe, the Financial Times named Sven's work to connect start-ups with Germany's Mittelstand (mid-sized companies) a standout “for making bridges between Silicon Valley and Germany”.

Benedikt Migdal Partner, Technology Transactions, Intellectual Property

Düsseldorf

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D:+49 211 3678 7164
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Technology & Innovation Sector
Technology Transactions
Intellectual Property
Patents
Trade Secrets Litigation
Strategic Advisory & Government Enforcement (SAGE)

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Benedikt Migdal Partner

Düsseldorf

Benedikt advises on structuring and negotiating the IP aspects of corporate transactions, including M&A, divestments and venture investments as well as of commercial transactions where intellectual property rights and know-how are key assets. His work encompasses, for example, IP licensing and technology transfer agreements, engineering services agreements, transition services agreements, R&D collaborations, and IP aspects of contracts throughout the life sciences sector.

Benedikt is also an experienced patent and trade secret litigator and has represented German and international clients from a range of industries in complex disputes, especially concerning patents and know-how in the fields of mobile telecommunication/connectivity and the life sciences.

Based on his extensive experience in both IP transactions and litigation, he deeply understands the full range of legal and economical issues that technology-driven companies are challenged with in context with IP. This also includes IP-related competition law issues, such as FRAND-requirements for licensing and enforcing standard essential patents as well as issues arising in connection with EU regulations concerning technology transfers.

Lynne Hermle Partner, Employment Law & Litigation, Wage and Hour

Silicon Valley

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D:+1 650 614 7422
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Technology & Innovation Sector
Employment Law & Litigation
Wage and Hour
Pay Equity

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Lynne Hermle Partner

Silicon Valley

Lynne led the trial team that obtained a complete defense verdict for Kleiner Perkins in Pao v. Kleiner Perkins, the high-stakes gender discrimination and retaliation case that garnered intense international media scrutiny. In naming Lynne “Litigator of the Week” for this victory, American Lawyer described her effective voir dire and how she “steadily poked holes in Pao’s testimony.” The Recorder called Lynne’s cross-examination “masterful” and Bloomberg reported that her “charismatic, intimidating oratory made her the trial’s breakout star.”

Following Pao, Lynne secured a complete defense verdict for SpaceX in an $8 million gender discrimination and retaliation suit. The Daily Journal called the outcome “another triumph for Hermle,” observing that her “string of successes for tech clients fighting off gender harassment and discrimination claims got longer.” The publication also pronounced Lynne to be “arguably the most feared employment defense attorney in California.” Eight months later she followed that up with another jury defense verdict for SpaceX in a wrongful discharge and retaliation case.

Lynne has significant experience successfully defending complex discrimination and wage-and-hour class actions for global leaders in the retail and technology sectors including Microsoft, Twitter, The Gap, Genentech, Sears, Burlington Coat Factory, Gymboree, Spencer’s Gifts, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Williams Sonoma and Pottery Barn Kids, among many others.

In recognition of these successes and her high-profile career trial work, Lynne was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2017. She is a fellow in the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and many other trial related organizations.