On April 9th 2019 Kerres | Partners hosted another event as part of the event series “Dialog am Schubertring”.

Kerres | Partners offered its guests the opportunity to learn about the legal foundations, as well as the opportunities and risks of a start-up investment.

"From term sheet to participation agreement - a balance of interest" - Dr Christoph Kerres LLM

The development of new technologies has led to the creation of many new companies and start-ups. Oftentimes the start-up companies bring many ideas and technological knowledge with them but need capital to finance their long-term development phases.

In many cases the relationship between entrepreneurs and financier can be tense: The entrepreneur wants to invest money and resources in the technical development and expansion of services, while an investor wants to secure his money and strives to achieve a high return on his investment as soon as possible. In this classic field of tension, the investment contract plays an essential role as well as clauses such as a right of first refusal, a co-sales obligation. These rules for the company’s capital increase try to create a balance of interests between the company founders and the investors. The detailed clauses of a "term sheet" as a basis for investing in a start-up are explained in detail.

“From investment to successgul sales – a long way” – Daniel Keiper-Knorr

Venture capital is an indispensable catalyst for the self-renewal of the economy. Especially in times of great revolutionary upheavals, it is particularly important for the economy to equip the young, emerging companies that are actively shaping this change and creating jobs and wealth with sufficient capital to enable them to get off the ground and to lead them onto a path of global growth. We are currently witnessing the beginning of a change, "the digital revolution", which will penetrate and radically as well as permanently change all areas of society and the economy. Since the industrial revolution of the 18th and early 19th centuries, there has been no development of similar scope. And the competition that digital companies face – just as the established companies that need to digitalize in order to survive - is globally spread amongst Asia, the US, and Europe. The conditions in Europe are good: we have more STEM graduates every year compared to the US, they are also better educated and cost half as much. But in Europe these engineers and entrepreneurs are provided with only 10% of the capital that the US mobilizes annually. Closing this gap is the unique opportunity that private venture capital currently offers in Europe and Austria.

If interested, we will be pleased to send you the presentation documents on request to marketing@kerres.at!

Kerres | Partners represents its clients’ interests in all matters of commercial law, transactions, litigation and arbitration, private foundations, as well as administrative law for more than 25 years. Kerres | Partners is one of Austria´s leading law firms and stands for knowledge, trust and success.