Patrick Driscoll

Senior Associate

London

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

Patrick advises companies with often transformative technologies across a number of sectors – including Enterprise Software, Consumer Marketplaces, Fintech, Web3, EdTech, Media, Cleantech, Healthcare and Life Sciences. He has supported companies in formation, through growth stages, to those scaling their operations across geographies, on a wide range of private equity transactions, M&A, joint ventures and corporate restructurings.

He has also represented leading investment funds (such as EQT Growth, ABN Amro Ventures, Kinnevik and Greycroft) and corporates (such as EDF, Live Nation, Workday and Twist Bioscience) in their venture capital and private equity investments.

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.