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When setting up a company in England and Wales, one of the first legal documents you will encounter is the Articles of Association. The Articles form the legal foundation of your company, defining what it is, what it can do, and how it must operate.   If you are launching a startup, you should not overlook their importance, as they will shape how decisions are made and how disputes are handled in the future. They set out the legal relationship…

If you’re running a company or preparing to issue shares to employees or co-founders, it’s important to think about what happens when someone leaves. Good leaver, bad leaver provisions help you manage this fairly and protect your business from future disputes.  These clauses, which are usually included in a shareholders’ agreement or the company’s Articles of Association, set out the terms on which a departing shareholder must sell their shares. They allow you to reward those who leave on good…

When you start a new business, the excitement of developing your idea and building a team often takes centre stage. However, you should not overlook the legal foundations that support your growth. This roadmap outlines the key legal steps you should take as a founder planning to scale your business and attract investment.

The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is one of the UK government’s key initiatives to encourage investment in early-stage companies. It provides generous tax reliefs to individuals who invest in qualifying businesses, making it more attractive to back start-ups that might otherwise struggle to raise funds. For growing companies, EIS can be an excellent source of capital to support their development.

The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS Scheme) is one of the most widely used initiatives for helping very young companies raise finance. It offers attractive tax reliefs to individual investors who take a risk on start-ups. Although the scheme is mainly about tax and accountancy, it also raises important commercial law issues for founders and investors.

When raising investment, businesses often focus on the commercial terms such as valuation, share price and voting rights. But the legal details in funding documentation are just as important. One of the most significant elements is the inclusion of warranties. These assurances can directly affect the liability of founders and the confidence of investors

Raising investment is a key milestone for most start-ups and early-stage businesses. Founders often look to funding rounds as a way to secure growth capital, bring in strategic investors and increase their company’s profile. Alongside the commercial aspects, there are important legal requirements to consider, particularly around financial promotions. In this article, we explain how the law regulates investment communications and explain how you can help avoid mistakes that could delay or even prevent a deal.

For founders and early investors, this is one of the biggest trade-offs of equity investment. The business gains the capital it needs to grow, but the original shareholders may own less of the company and have less influence than before. Understanding how dilution works, and how to manage it, is essential for anyone planning a funding round.

The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS Scheme) is designed to help very early-stage companies raise finance by offering tax reliefs to individual investors who buy new shares. It is a government-backed initiative that has played a major role in supporting startups across the UK since its introduction in 2012.

Drag-Along and Tag-Along Rights and the implications on a funding round Raising equity investment is exhilarating, but the contracts you sign during a funding round will decide who controls and who ultimately profits from your business. One pair of clauses deserves particular attention: drag-along and tag-along rights.   They dictate what happens to every shareholder’s stake if a buyer makes an offer for the company, and their wording often becomes a sticking point during term sheet negotiations. This article looks at…