The UK startup market is one of the strongest ecosystems in the world.
According to Pitchbook data, Europe alone had a decade high in 2018* of €20.5Bn of total deal value across 3,384 deals. In 2018, total venture capital investment in UK tech topped £6Bn, more than any other European country. The UK attracted 5.2% of global high-growth investment in 2018*. Artificial intelligence (AI) startups from the UK raised almost double that of France and Germany combined.
So when you’re part of an ecosystem as robust as the UK start-up market like Withers tech has been since 2013, the best way to help the market continue to grow is by contributing to its success. We think that is helping draft templates for several of the leading incubators and accelerators that have helped entrepreneurs get their start.
Here are four organisations we have co-drafted legal and template documents for:
Entrepreneur First
James Shaw, Partner and Global Head at Withers tech and Matt Clifford, Founder, EF first came up with the idea of a SAFE document for UK deals. With the help of tax advisers, they created the first template/open source EIS-efficient EFAST – a true breakthrough in early stage investment documents.
500 Startups
Withers tech co-drafted UKISS & ASA documents for 500 Startups. These documents are strategic resources for founder agreements, advisor agreements, IP assignment agreements and term sheets and can be found on the 500 Startups’s KISS Portal.
Seedcamp/Seed Summit
Many people contribute the success of Silicon Valley ecosystem to the extensive legal framework that’s been created -- documents like NVCA, Series Seed, KISS and SAFE -- have helped to standardize how deals get done. But the UK also has a rich ecosystem for start-ups and Seedcamp / Seed Summit* is one of the accelerators giving founders in the UK access to legal documents and templates for fundraising.
British Venture Capital Association
We are proud of our collaboration with the British Venture Capital Association* and the tax and legal regulatory model documents* for early stage investments we created with them.
Have questions about any of these UKISS and ASA documents? Our Withers tech team can help you along your journey - from seed to Series A to exit.
