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Capital Raising

There is no substitute for experience.

  • Term Sheets
  • Equity Financings (Ordinary and Preference Shares)
  • SAFEs & Convertible Notes
  • Crowd Sourced Funding
  • Secured & Unsecured Loans
  • 125+ startup financings
  • $100M+ in capital raised
  • 300+ investor shareholders

General Standards provides end-to-end advice, services and documentation to promote, negotiate and close early-stage startup investments.

 

General Standards advises on capital raisings, large and small, every day. We’re well versed in helping startups document small contributions from family and friends, through to formal venture capital investments, strategic investment from large corporations, accelerator investments, crowd sourced funding, government grants and commercial loans – and often combinations of a few such funding sources.

 

We have clients that have raised money from most of the prominent Australian venture capital firms, nearly all prominent accelerators and many leading institutions and corporates.

 

As our role as the company’s lawyers means we have to work with all shareholders into the future, we take a collaborative approach which facilitates the startup and its investors building a good relationship during the financing process.

 

We are well-tuned to the market-standards and customary terms in financings, while adept at negotiating protections and specialised outcomes for founders.

 

We almost universally advocate for startups and investors to spend the time developing a comprehensive term sheet that deals with the financial elements of the deal, along with the detail of all the important shareholder governance matters. This approach allows our clients to reach consensus with their investors and minimise either party’s lawyers having to negotiate anything post-term sheet. This often allows us to also offer a fixed-fee to prepare the long form documents and close the financing, as all terms are fully settled once the term sheet has been signed.

 

We are also often able to fully fix-fee the earlier stages of financings, and for clients doing their second or later stage of financing with General Standards, fees are often very low due to the processes and documentation in previous rounds.

 

General Standards regularly advises on multi-million dollar rounds with dozens of investors, which requires a significant amount of coordination to distribute documentation, collect feedback, harmonise amendments, undertake company resolutions and oversee the financial close. This procedural expertise gives General Standards clients confidence that their house is always in order.

 

Our experience is particularly useful in crowd sourced funding where there may be dozens, or hundreds, of small investors. We can setup and assist to manage formal online share registries to allow for easier shareholder management.

 

Capital raising is an integral part of the General Standards legal practice, and General Standards is proud to have advised hundreds of founders on successful financings.

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Notable Work

  • Venture Capital
  • Cradle-to-Grave

    2014 Incorporation
    $1.5M in Capital (AirTree, Adcock)
    2018 Exit to Oneflare

  • Capital Raising

    $10M+ in Capital
    20+ Investors including Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne

  • Enterprise Sales

    900-seat SaaS licence to Canadian eCommerce behemoth Shopify.

  • Capital Raising

    $2.5M+ in Seed Capital
    40+ Investors
    Preference Shares
    Convertible Notes

  • Accelerators

    Developed Standard Documents
    Onboarded 15 Startups
    $600K Total Investment

  • Terms of Service

    Terms of Service and Privacy Policy used for tens of thousands of customers.

  • Accelerator / Capital Raising
  • ESOP

    Employee Share Option Plan
    Issue Options to Team Members