Patrick Driscoll

Patrick's practice covers a range of corporate, venture capital and private equity transactions, with a focus on technology and intellectual property-rich companies.

• Engagements

  Company-side Growth Financings

  • TrueLayer, the global open banking platform, on its incorporation and early-stage investment.
  • Finbourne Technology, a financial data management startup, on its $70m Series B financing led by Highland and AXA Venture Partners.
    
  • AI chip startup Axelera on its $68m Series B funding from a global investor base, including Samsung and the Italian sovereign fund CDP Venture Capital.
    
  • Shop Circle, the e-commerce operator, through stealth mode and its $65m series A financing, led by NFX and QED Investors, with participation from 645 Ventures, FirstMinute Capital and Triple Point Capital.

  • HelloSelf, the online therapy provider, on its series A and series B funding rounds led by OMERS and Octopus Ventures (respectively).
  • Infogrid, which enables ‘smart’ buildings, on its $90m series B financing led by Northzone with participation from Original Capital, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Pictet and JLL Spark.
  • Plentific, the property management platform, on its $100m series C funding round, co-led by Highland Europe and Brookfield Technology Partners with participation from Mubadala.
  • Leko Labs, the sustainable construction start-up, on its series A financing led by 2150, alongside the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund and Tencent.
    

  Venture Capital Investments

  • EQT Growth Fund on leading the €250m series F financing of Vinted, the online clothing marketplace.
  • Kinnevik and Vostok New Ventures in respect of their investments in Babylon Health.
  • Greycroft on a number of its investments, including the $170m series A financing of JOKR, the instant grocery delivery start-up.
  • Oxx on its investment in a number of SaaS businesses at series B and beyond, including Peak AI, Goodlord, Black Swan Data, Gravitee.io and CyberSmart.
  • African Development Partners on its lead investment in Ukheshe, an enabler of companies in the African fintech ecosystem.
    
  • Fabric Ventures and Metaplanet on their investments in Argent, the Ethereum L2 wallet.
  • Moonfire on its early-stage investments, including Electric Noir, Faculty and Pento.

  M&A Exits

  • ABN AMRO Ventures on the sale of European open banking platform Tink to Visa.
  • UltraSoC Technologies, an on-chip analytics provider, on its sale to Siemens.
  • Egress Software Technologies, a leader in cloud email security, on its sale to KnowBe4 (backed by Vista Equity Partners).
    
  • Market Data Services Limited, a telecoms expense management business, on its sale to Sumeru Equity Partners.
  • KVH Industries on its disposal of the Videotel group to Oakley Capital.
  • AltoDigital Networks on its sale to Xerox.
  • FLYdocs on its sale to Lufthansa Technik.

  Private Equity: Acquisitions and MBOs

  • Global Processing Services, a global payment platform backed by Visa, on its acquisition by Advent International and Viking Global Investors.
  • Tenzing Private Equity on its investment in FMP Global, the payroll provider (by management buy-out).
  • NICE Ltd on its acquisition of Brand Embassy.
  • Workday on a number of UK investments.
  • Tide, the online business banking provider, on its acquisition of Funding Options, the SME credit marketplace.
  • Infogrid, the smart buildings system, on its acquisition of Aquicore, an ESG data and analytics company for commercial real estate.

  Joint Ventures

  • A consortium of investment banks (including BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Société Générale, UBS and another international retail banking company) in respect of the establishment and formation of a not-for-profit fixed income pre-trade information network (Neptune Networks).
  • Live Nation on its co-investments in a number of European music festivals.
  • Esparity Solar on its capital raise for a 1 GW portfolio of grid parity solar projects in Spain.
  • EDF Energy Renewables on its sale of a 49% stake in its portfolio of wind farms to Dalmore Capital and the Pensions Infrastructure Platform.

  Equity Capital Markets

  • Alpha Financial Markets Consulting plc on its IPO and admission to AIM.
  • GBG Group plc on two share placings to fund the acquisitions of PCA Predict and IDology.
  • Latchways plc’s recommended takeover by MSA Safety by way of a scheme of arrangement.