News | Corporate Finance

Friday 20th July 2001

SJ Berwin acted for Atlas Venture and Pond Venture Partners Ltd. in the US$7 million first round investment in Picochip Designs Ltd, a UK start-up that designs semiconductors targeting the 3rd-generation mobile base station market. Picochip's uniquely flexible chip technology allows the development of base stations that mobile operators can cost effectively deploy and upgrade, without having to replace obsolete software each time. Its technology is attractive because it is faster to develop, cheaper and less power hungry than today's solutions.

Atlas Venture is a leading international, early-stage venture capital firm investing in communications, information technology and life sciences companies. Atlas Venture currently manages over US$2.5 billion in committed capital. Pond Venture Partners manages venture capital funds exclusively targeting early-stage technology companies in the UK and Europe. Pond has US$90 million under management.

SJ Berwin has previously acted for both Atlas Venture and Pond Venture Partners respectively on various other investments, including the £8 million investment of Atlas Venture into the biotechnology firm Renovo. SJ Berwin also acted as counsel to Pond Venture Partners on the establishment of the Pond Ventures and Pond Ventures II funds.

The SJ Berwin team was led by partner Jonathan Pittal, who was assisted by Andrew Clarke. Jonathan Pittal said: "This is a further example of established venture investors being able to find quality deals in a challenging market place".

• SJ Berwin was founded in 1982 and is a full-service international legal practice with 119 partners and more than 430 lawyers. It has offices in London, Brussels, Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Madrid and Paris.
• With the largest dedicated private equity team in Europe, comprising 140 full-time corporate private equity lawyers together with support from its other departments, SJ Berwin advises clients on the full-range of private equity business, both in connection with the establishment of private equity funds and their associated incentive schemes, and on MBOs, MBIs, public-to-privates and venture capital investments.
• SJ Berwin has recently won the European Venture Capital Journal Award for Private Equity Law Firm of the Year 2000, Law Firm of the Year and Property Team of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2000, and Competition Team of the Year at the Legal Business Awards 2000.
• Picochip is led by Peter Claydon, the Ex-Managing Dirctor and Founder of the UK subsidiary of Oak Technology.