Technology Transactions Germany

We advise start-ups, venture investors as well as corporate investors on technology transactions day in day out: Together with our international colleagues, we are ranked as the law firm advising the most venture capital transactions in Europe – for more than six years in a row (PitchBook, Q4 2021). And only very recently, we have been nominated for the prestigious JUVE Award 2021 as Law Firm of the Year in Germany for Private Equity & Venture Capital.

Being one of the top tech law firms in the U.S. and having strong routes into the Silicon Valley and other major U.S. tech hubs, we are very familiar with the U.S. venture market and its customs and practices. We especially want to help German technology companies to take advantage of the world’s largest venture capital ecosystem and help them to expand into, and scale in, the U.S. market. In its 2017 Innovative Lawyer Report Europe, the Financial Times praised the work of our German team to build bridges into Silicon Valley as outstanding.

In a time of ever-shorter innovation cycles and the increased digitalization of many value-added chains, established businesses need to constantly evolve and reinvent themselves – even going so far as to rethink their core business. Corporate venture capital (CVC), can play a key role in the corporate innovation portfolio. We have a special focus on and long-standing experience in global CVC investments.

Some of our recent technology transactions include:

Tech Exits and Acquisitions

• Lilium on $3.3bn SPAC Merger with NASDAQ-listed Qell Acquisition Corp., including a $450m PIPE investment
• IPO of German fintech creditshelf in the Prime Standard of Frankfurt Stock Exchange
• Skillz Inc. on $50m investment in and partnership with Exit Games GmbH
• Kennet Partners on sale of HYPE Innovation to Main Capital Partners
• Sale of ProLeiT AG to Schneider Electric
• Xometry on acquisition of Shift 

Venture Capital Investments

• German SaaS startup Camunda on €82m Series B Investment Round
• Düsseldorf-based auxmoney on their €150m financing round
• Berlin-based startup Contentful on their $80m series E financing
• Lilium on its $275m financing round with Baillie Gifford, Tencent, Atomico, Freigeist and LGT
• Coatue Management as lead investor in $44m series A financing of Berlin-based Gorillas Technologies
• Goodwater Capital as co-lead in the $60m series B financing of TIER Mobility
• GreyBird Ventures on its participation in $13.5m series C financing of German GNA Biosolutions
• Various German startups such as Demodesk, electry, kiteKRAFT, Localyze or Taktile on their U.S. flip, in many cases as part of their participation in the Y Combinator program

Corporate Venture Capital Investments

• Microsoft’s M12 and Haniel on their investments in Wandelbots’ $30m Series B financing
• Deutsche Telekom on creation of U.S./Germany-based smart glasses joint venture with ZEISS
• Augmented reality startup RE'FLEKT on corporate venture capital investments by Bosch and by BASF
• Deutsche Börse on their corporate venture capital investments in U.S. fintech Trumid and U.S. data wrangler Trifacta
• PHW Group on their corporate venture capital investments in an Israeli in-vitro meat startup and a U.S. vegan fish products startup

Pro Bono Activities

• Pro bono advice to an impact investment fund anchored by the UN’s Green Climate Fund (GCF) on their Series A growth investment into a Germany-based social impact startup
• We regularly support entrepreneurship activities at the WHU–Otto Beisheim School of Management where for example we have teamed up with the WHU Entrepreneurship Roundtable to organize a number of international events around corporate venturing and corporate innovation. Our partner Sven Greulich is a member of the Advisory Board of the Master in Entrepreneurship study program of the WHU and a frequent guest lecturer on VC and CVC financings.

In order to bring the U.S. and German entrepreneurship ecosystems closer together, we have incorporated some of our expertise in the following Guides:

The Orrick Legal Ninja Series (OLNS)
With this series we will provide overviews on current legal trends and take deeper dives on certain legal topics that are particularly relevant for start-ups and their investors.
>> Read more

Go West: Venture Financings and Expansion Projects in the United States
2nd Edition | After the huge success of the first edition, and in response to multiple requests from the German tech community, we have launched an updated and expanded version of our Go West Guide.
>> Read more