Herbert Smith Freehills’ venture capital team has advised Mr Yum on its acquisition of MyGuestList and Sprout.
Mr Yum is an Australian tech start-up whose mobile ordering and payment platform helps businesses in the hospitality and entertainment industries grow revenue and give customers a seamless digital experience.
MyGuestList provides a customer relationship management platform for hospitality operators and customer communications tool through the MyGuestList brand as well as its UK subsidiary, Sprout. Its offerings help restaurants, bars and pubs market to their customers and generate customer loyalty.
The Herbert Smith Freehills team was led by partner and Co-Head of Venture Capital Clayton James, senior associate Thomas Kelly and solicitor Vincent Greco Schwartz, with support from Co-Head of Venture Capital (Australia) Elizabeth Henderson, solicitors Katherine Duong and Nick Venn, partners Aaron White and Fiona Smedley, special counsel Amalia Stone, senior associates Matthew Dempsey, Rommo Pandit and Adam Hickey, and solicitors Marine Giral, Nayan Bhathela and Lucy Halliday. The team worked with associated tax practice Greenwoods & Herbert Smith Freehills, led by partner Toby Eggleston.
Clayton James said, “We were delighted to advise Mr Yum on its first acquisition and congratulate Kim Teo, David Cook, Brianna Fitzpatrick and the rest of the team on another significant milestone for the company. It has been terrific to work with Mr Yum and watch it grow over the past few years, and we look forward to seeing the combined force of Mr Yum and MyGuestList taking the business even further.”
David Cook, Chief Financial Officer of Mr Yum, said, “The team at Herbert Smith Freehills provided expert and timely advice across all phases of the acquisition including deal structuring, legal due diligence, taxation and the transaction documents. The HSF team applied a practical and commercial lens to deliver an excellent outcome and we look forward to partnering on future transactions together”.
This deal is another example of Herbert Smith Freehills’ market-leading work in Australian venture capital, tech M&A and liquidity transactions. Other recent examples include:
- Mr Yum on its A$89 million Series A capital raise
- Adairs Limited’s NZ$80 million acquisition of Mocka Group from its founders
- Atlassian’s acquisitions of Code Barrel and ThinkTilt from the companies’ founders
- the A$125 million merger of thedockyard and Ansarada and capital raising and re-listing of the merged entity on the ASX
- SafetyCulture on its A$60.5 million Series C capital raise and secondary sale
- the investment in GreenCollar by KKR, the first in Australia for its US$1.3 billion Global Impact Fund
- Michael Cassel Group on a strategic investment by Amplify
