Howard Watt

I have significant experience and expertise in venture capital transactions, having spent time both in-house and in private practice. My deal experience ranges from early/seed stage investments spanning the full life cycle of Series A-D and through to M&A and IPO exits for venture backed companies. I am recognised in the latest Legal 500 and Chambers guides as a leading individual in my field.

I advise angels, founders, companies and many of the leading early stage and growth venture capital funds operating in Europe. My transaction history has covered a wide variety of sectors including fintech, gaming, medical and health tech, SaaS, ad-tech, artificial intelligence, e-commerce, consumer tech, cryptocurrency and blockchain. The investor side of my practice is particularly strong which no doubt can be traced to my 6 years as in-house counsel to a major European growth venture fund. I am often asked to act as ‘outsourced’ general counsel to many of my investor clients for transactions all over the world.

Outside of the office you will most likely find me being overrun by my three kids or seeking respite in the nearest gym or cigar bar.

• Advising Atomico on leading investment rounds into Infarm, Graphcore, PsiQuantum, Healx, Zapp, Arculus, Labgenius and Qatalog (among others).
• Acting for Tripledot Studios on its $78m Series A investment from Access Industries, Eldridge Industries, and Lightspeed Partners.
• Advising the selling shareholders of Drover Limited (including Target Global, Autotech, Cherry Ventures, Version One, Forward Partners, Partech, BP Ventures, FOMCAP, RTP Global, Rider Global, Channel 4 Ventures and Shell Ventures) on the sale of Drover Limited to Cazoo.
• Acting for Draper Esprit on leading investment rounds into Ieso Digital Health, Hadean Supercomputing, Endomag, Agora.V