Slaughter and May and OC lead as M&S launches new startup investment venture
Magic circle firm advises retailer on joint venture with Founders Factory
July 25, 2018 at 05:59 AM
2 minute read
Slaughter and May and Osborne Clarke (OC) are advising on the launch of a new joint venture led by Marks & Spencer (M&S) to invest in and develop fast-growth startups.
M&S is partnering with Founders Factory – a startup incubator and accelerator co-founded by lastminute.com's Brent Hoberman – to launch Founders Factory Retail, as part of what it describes as an effort to expose itself to "new technologies, business models and entrepreneurial thinking".
Slaughters is fielding a team led by corporate partner Paul Dickson, with support from IP/IT partner David Ives and tax partner Dominic Robertson.
The deal is the latest example of the magic circle firm looking to establish ground-level ties with emerging startups, on the the back of its Fintech Fast Forward scheme for UK entrepreneurs and its investment in AI startup Luminance.
Slaughters' association with M&S dates back to 2007, when it advised the retailer on an attempted hostile takeover by Philip Green's Arcadia Group. The magic circle firm has since represented the company on a wide range of matters, including its pension funding plan, and the sale and franchise of its retail business in Hong Kong and Macau.
OC, meanwhile, is acting for Founders Factory, which it has advised since its inception in 2015, The firm's team is led by corporate partner Mathias Loertscher and associate director Ken Wilkinson.
The deal, which marks Founders Factory's first exclusive retail partner deal in the UK, reinforces OC's relationship with the company after it helped it secure investments from L'Oreal, easyJet, the Guardian Media Group and Aviva, among others.
Under the agreement, M&S becomes Founders Factory Retail's majority shareholder, opening the high street icon up to a global network of startups, which chief executive Steve Rowe says "will provide disruptive thinking… at a time of critical transformation within the business".
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