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European law firm Fieldfisher has acted for self-employment technology specialist, Wise, on its investment agreement with Inflexion, one of the UK’s leading mid-market private investment firms.
The investment has seen Inflexion purchase a minority stake in the award-winning business, which was founded just two years ago.
With offices in Solihull and London, Wise creates technology to improve the self-employment experience for both companies and individual subcontractors, with a key focus on the UK logistics and courier industry.
The Wise platform is currently used by over 250 logistics firms and over 14,000 self-employed drivers to manage everything from onboarding to document storage and compliance.
This investment and expertise from Inflexion will support Wise as it continues to rapidly grow its integrated platform into new sectors within self-employment such as construction and private-hire. Wise will also now benefit from the expertise of the Inflexion team in advising medium-sized companies on their growth trajectory.
With a current team of 50 technology specialists, Wise’s platform supports a network of last-mile delivery providers who work with carriers such as Amazon, DPD, Hermes and more.
Wise was supported on the deal by a legal team led by Graham Muth and Andy Lawton-Smith, corporate partners at Fieldfisher Birmingham. Wise was also advised by Titan Partners Group and its founder, Mike Henebery, who originated the transaction.
Commenting on the deal, Graham Muth, Fieldfisher corporate partner, said:
"It has been a great pleasure to be involved in this transaction for the Wise team, one of the leading innovators in the West Midlands.
"The scale of this investment is testament to the quality of Wise's business and its people, whom we congratulate on the completion of this deal and wish every success with taking their transformative technology to the next level."
Simon Hills, Chief Executive Officer of Wise, said:
"Since founding Wise, we've been on a truly incredible journey. We've brought together a team of 50 talented individuals and built a business we're all proud of. Now, with this investment from Inflexion, we're excited to move on to the next stage of the Wise journey.
"We'll continue to improve the technology for our existing clients while we roll out our intuitive platform to a variety of new sectors. Andy and Graham and their team have stood at our shoulders throughout the process and have added huge value to us."
Simon Turner, Managing Partner at Inflexion, said:
"In a short space of time Wise has established itself as an emerging champion catering to the growing demand from the intersection of self-employment and last-mile logistics. An explosive e-commerce market combined with Wise’s market-leading offering make the business extremely well placed to continue its impressive growth."
This private investment news comes shortly after the firm was named Digital Startup of The Year at the 2021 West Midlands Tech Awards.
To find out more about Wise and how it is revolutionising self-employment with technology, head to www.withwise.com
About Fieldfisher
Fieldfisher is a European law firm built around its people. We are a full-service firm with market-leading practices in energy and natural resources, technology, financial services and life sciences.
Our network of more than 1,700 expert people spans 25 offices in 11 countries, including our US and China locations, acting alongside our international partner firms, enabling us to advise clients around the world with seamless efficiency and dedication across time zones and disciplines.
A Times Top 20 Law Firm, we are highly commended by the European Financial Times Innovative Lawyers rankings and repeatedly nominated for awards in areas including dispute resolution, public and regulatory, M&A and IP. Our lawyers are consistently recognised by legal directories as leading professionals in their areas of specialism and we are ranked tier 1 or 2 in a number of our key practice areas.
For more information about our firm, please see: About | Fieldfisher