At the start of each year, we like to spend some time analysing data on the transactions which we worked on in the previous year.

The numbers are now in and we’re pleased to report that 2015 was an incredible year for our corporate lawyers advising on capital raising deals.  Here are some of the highlights:

• we helped close 43 capital raising transactions. Of those, 32 were for NZ companies
• our expertise now extends to financing rounds outside of NZ, and in particular in SE Asia – 11 were investments in Singapore based companies on mostly US style investment terms
• a total of NZD180 million was raised in the transactions we advised on
• in most cases we acted for the companies raising capital, but in a couple of notable cases, we advised international venture capital firms on significant follow-on rounds

The number of NZ capital raising transactions that the firm is handling continues to grow year-on-year. Companies, whom we previously advised on small seed rounds, are now looking for significant follow-on capital in 2016. This funding will increasingly come from overseas investors.  For some this will be via ASX listings, others may end up flipping to the US or other emerging tech hubs, such as Singapore – where there is more institutional and VC funding available.

Our international work has also given us a different perspective on our NZ capital raising deals. We have tried to bring some of these investment models and other insights to the local market where we can. For example, last year we introduced the KiwiKISS and KiwiSAFE.  As ever, we welcome discussion with participants in the tech ecosystem on ways to improve capital raising for both companies and investors.

Finally we are pleased to report we advised on 18 M&A deals during 2015, a significant increase on 2014.  This included helping NZ and Singapore tech companies to make bolt on acquisitions, as well as advising on exit transactions.  We hope to be able to report on a greater number of tech M&A transactions this time next year, with some larger valuations expected.