Tom Ward

Tom is a partner in Fieldfisher's Corporate Group and Co-Head of the firm's international Emerging Companies and Venture Capital group. He is a tech-focused VC and M&A lawyer, described by clients in 2022 as "exceptionally sharp" and "extremely diligent".

Tom was ranked in Legal Week's 2019 "40 under 40: The Rising Stars in Private Equity" and described in Legal500 in 2023 as "a high quality, commercially-minded and market savvy lawyer".

He is particularly known for the volume of company-side mandates he works on in the UK market, working closely with founders and technology companies as they finance and scale their businesses. Tom also works with a growing number of leading venture capital funds, both in the UK, US and EU, on their equity investments into UK emerging companies.

Tom also regularly acts for large global corporates and SMEs on acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic investments, in addition to advising his large portfolio of growth company clients on bolt-on acquisitions and eventually exits, including via competitive auction processes, to both trade acquirers and private equity houses.

Tom also regularly advises international growth companies on their launch in the UK and European markets, having advised multiple tech companies from the US and European jurisdictions on establishing their businesses in the UK.

Recent Experience: Venture Capital

• Advising pioneering electric delivery company Hived on its $42m Series B equity financing led by NordicNinja with strong participation from existing investors including Planet A, Wex Venture Capital, Marunouchi Innovation Partners, Elemental Impact, Yamato Holdings, Future Back Ventures by Bain and Co as well as Rocketship VC
• Advising UK fintech Tembo Money on its £30m Series B and Series C equity financings led by Goodwater Capital and Gresham House Ventures
• Advising Europe's leading University spin-out investment fund Creator Fund on over 30 separate transactions to date, as lead investor backing scientific founders  developing innovative businesses in deep technology and life sciences
• Advising UK fintech Carmoola on its £27m seed investment round led by InMotion Ventures, VentureFriends and US-based Clocktower Ventures, and subsequently advising the company on its £103.5m Series A round led by US venture fund QED Investors
• Advising leading UK investment fund Fuel Ventures as lead equity investor on over 35 separate equity financings to date including the £49m seed funding of ecommerce business Heroes Technology
• Advising Scottish electric bus/coach operator Ember Core on its £11m Series A equity financing round, led by Inven Capital, 2150 and AENU with participation from existing investor Pale Blue Dot
• Advising AI due diligence provider Xapien on its $10m Series A equity financing round led by YFM Equity Partners
• Advising autonomous drone logistics business Dronamics on its $40m pre-Series A financing
• Advising PropTech company Oh Goodlord Limited on its £27m Series C investment led by Highland Europe, Finch Capital and Latitude with £12m venture debt facility from Columbia Lake Partners
• Advising parcel delivery platform HubBox on its £6m Series B preferred equity financing led by Puma VCT funds.
• Advising Silicon Valley 'deeptech' venture capital fund Playground Global on the £13 million Series A funding of Phasecraft, a UK quantum software company and market leader in quantum intellectual property
• Advising Onbuy.com, the UK's fasting growing ecommerce platform, on its £35m Series A+ financing
• Advising leading EIS venture capital fund Guinness Assets Management on several equity investments into UK growth companies to date, including the Series A financings of Tailify and Distbtd and the refinancing of Push Technology
• Advising VR fitness developer FitXR on its $7.5m Series A investment led by Hiro Capital, with participation from BoostVC, Maveron and TenOneTen Ventures
• Advising UK fintech Codat on its $10m Series A round led by Index Ventures and advising the business on its subsequent strategic equity investment from American Express and PayPal
• Advising virtual-reality immersive retail Software-as-a-service platform Emperia on its $10m Series A funding  led by Base10 Partners, with participants including Daphni VC, Sony Innovation Fund and Concept VC

Recent Experience: M&A

• Advising online news platform Tortoise Media on its equity financing and simultaneous acquisition of the world's oldest Sunday newspaper business "The Observer" from Guardian News & Media Limited 
• Advising online beautytech software platform Slick on the sale of the entire issued share capital of the Company to US acquirer DaySmart Software LLC
• Advising Ireland's leading solar company Activ8 Energies on its UK expansion including its acquisition of North-West based solar installer Low Carbon Energy
• Advising US acquirer Bruno Independent Living Aids, Inc. on its acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Terry Lifts, a leading manufacturer of home elevators and platform lifts based in Cheshire, UK
• Advising Together Group Holdings plc on multiple cross-border acquisitions of digital agencies including PurplePR, King & Partners, Construct London, Noe & Associates, Seven Dials, The Future Laboratory Group, North Six, Metajive, OBO, VisualisationOne and Imerza
• Advising a leading global management consultancy on over 10+ acquisitions of UK digital agencies / business transformation consultancies
• Advising Pistachio Holdings (part of East Africa-based Sumaria Group) on its acquisition of a controlling stake in the Creams Café chain of UK ice cream parlours
• Advising Bidco on the management-buyout of home improvement finance and funding business Improveasy and subsequently advising Improveasy on multiple bolt-on acquisitions
• Advising US-based CTi, the largest privately-owned AV systems integrator in the US, on its first overseas acquisition of UK-based Candeo Vision
• Advising selling shareholders of VC-backed mens health business Honest Health on the exit and sale and purchase of the company by NYSE-listed Hims & Hers, Inc.
• Advising IT service management company Helecloud and its selling shareholders including BGF on the sale of the entire issued share capital of the VC-backed company to Switzerland-headquartered market peer, SoftwareONE
• Advising selling shareholders on the exit of VC-backed ecommerce data analytics business E-Fundamentals on the sale of the company to US purchaser CommerceIQ;
• Advising Merkle, Inc. a US based global data-driven marketing agency on its UK expansion and acquisition of marketing solutions agencies DBG One and Periscopix
• Advising the selling shareholders of established in-building wireless provider Opencell to US-infrastructure fund Digital Colony, a global investment firm focused on investing in the mobile and internet infrastructure landscape worldwide