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Nabarro VC practice goes from strength to strength
11 February 2008
Nabarro has just completed two venture capital deals. The first, involved the new venture of Brent Hoberman and Martha Lane-Fox called mydeco, which is seeking to target the £14 billion home furnishings market and had a high profile launch this week. A team led by head of corporate at Nabarro, Iain Newman, advised long-standing client, Spark Ventures plc on its role as lead investor of a syndicate of investors. The syndicate included venture capital firm, Arts Alliance, Lord Rothschild’s family interest, Marc Worth (of Worth Style Global Network) and another long-standing Nabarro client, Edward Atkin, the founder of Canon Avent, the baby feeding equipment manufacturer sold three years ago. Mydeco were advised by their in-house counsel, David Hickson.
Spark Ventures is one of the leading European technology-focused early stage investment firms. Nabarro has represented Spark since its flotation a decade ago and on recent transactions which include the acquisition of the Quester funds management business (advised by Travers Smith) earlier this year.
Nabarro has also acted in relation to another Spark Ventures investment. This time, the firm acted for another long-standing client, Balderton Capital on its agreement to invest in Kobalt Music Services Limited, which Spark had first backed some five years ago.
Balderton is an early-stage venture firm which aims to build companies of lasting value, and its investments range in size from as little as $100,000 to as much as $50 million. Balderton was founded in 2000 as Benchmark Europe by Benchmark Capital the leading US Silicon Valley venture firm, and formally became an independent firm in 2007.
Kobalt is a leading independent music publisher and one of SPARK Ventures’ largest portfolio companies. Established in 2001, it offers global copyright administration, creative and synch/licensing services, and advances to writers, publishers and other publishing rights holders.
The Nabarro team acting for Balderton was led by corporate partner Andrew Wigfall, assisted by associates Ted Dewhurst, Sinead Garcia and various specialists. Kobalt were advised by HRO Grant Dawe LLP.
Barry Maytum, one of Nabarro’s leading VC partners, commented:
“These deals for long-standing clients typify our continued strength in the VC market and follows on from work for clients whom we have gained in the recent past including Accel Partners, Blue Run Ventures, Electra and Oxford Capital.”
For further information please contact:
Charlotte Tandy
Lansons Communications
T 020 7566 9706
charlottet@lansons.com
