Acuity Business Startup | Business Legal Support

Making Business Happen.

From first idea to successful exit: expert start up lawyers who understand what it takes to build a business.

Talk to the Acuity Startups Team.

A Legal team that understands the challenges of starting a business.

Building a business is hard enough without legal complexity slowing you down. The right legal advice at the right stage doesn’t just protect you, it helps you move faster, raise investment with confidence and build something that lasts.

At Acuity Law, we have extensive experience of working with founders, entrepreneurs and early-stage businesses, and fully understand the pressures our clients are under. We work in partnership, often as an extension of their team to give practical, commercial advice that makes a real difference and helps to move businesses forward.

Our team is experienced in advising at an early stage as you grow and develop your commercial model. We advise along the entire life cycle of your business, from formation through to pre-seed funding through to Series A funding and beyond (including SEIS and EIS funding). This includes venture capital investment, equity fundraising from angel investors and debt arrangements.

Our team can call upon specialist expertise across multiple legal disciplines to provide seamless and comprehensive legal support for companies at all stages of their growth cycle.

Our Specialist Startup legal services, support at every stage.

Every startup is different, but the legal challenges you face tend to follow a familiar path. Our start-up lawyers are experienced at every stage of that journey; from the moment you have an idea worth protecting to the day you successfully exit. At every stage, our team work alongside you and any AI solutions you have adopted, helping you manage the legal, commercial and regulatory considerations that arise as technology becomes part of your business. Our services include:

Formation & Early Stage

Getting the foundations right matters more than most founders realise. The decisions you make at the start, around company structure, founder agreements, intellectual property ownership and commercial documentation, have a significant and lasting impact on your ability to raise investment and scale.

Our specialist team help early-stage businesses get set up correctly from day one, protecting their Intellectual Property, structuring the business correctly, and putting in place the contractual arrangements that will serve them well as they grow.

Funding & Investment

Raising investment is one of the most significant legal moments in any startup’s life.

Whether our clients are raising their first pre-seed round, accessing SEIS or EIS funding, or working through a Series A round, we provide clear, commercially focused advice to support them in securing investment on the right terms. We also advise founders of university spin-outs on the spin-out process to ensure the foundations are in place from the start that are on founder friendly terms.

We advise both founders and investors on shareholder agreements, equity arrangements, term sheets and investment documentation, helping to structure deals that work for everyone and protecting our client’s position for the long term.

Growth & Scaling

As business grow, so does its legal complexity. From taking on employees, building out commercial contracts, implementing share incentive schemes to attract and retain talent, managing data protection obligations at scale, there are multiple challenges that a fast-growing business will face.

To be successful all businesses need commercial lawyers that understand their business and can keep pace with the business growth aims and ambitions. Our specialist startup lawyers can call on specialist expertise across multiple practice areas including Commercial, Corporate, Employment, Data Protection, and Intellectual Property to specialist Real Estate, Construction and Dispute Resolution and Litigation to give you seamless support as you scale.

Business Exit Strategy

Whether our clients are planning a trade or private equity sale, a management buy-out or another form of exit, the groundwork put in throughout building and expanding the business often determines the outcome achieve at the end of it.

Our specialist team has extensive experience advising founders on exit transactions, ensuring that our clients are well-positioned to maximise the true value of their businesses.

Part of the startup community.

We don’t just advise start-ups from a distance; we’re actively involved in the communities where founders and investors come together.

Our team works with leading university incubators and programmes across the UK, helping founders understand the legal process of taking an idea from concept to commercial product. We deliver training sessions, provide drop-in support and assist in commercialising products, from drafting terms and conditions and privacy policies to advising on IP strategy and investment readiness.

Our prominent presence in accelerator and investor communities means we understand the ecosystem our clients operate in, and the people they are dealing with.

Chalkie AI

Advising Chalkie, a UK-based AI platform for generating standards-aligned lessons and worksheets, with its £2m seed funding led by Triple Point Ventures.

HealthKey

Advising HealthKey, a London-based healthtech, on its £1.13 million seed funding round led by Aviva Ventures.

AI Voice Isolation Technology

Advising an AI voice isolation technology company on its Series B fund raise from a consortium of private equity investors, which will enable it to commercialise its technology on a worldwide basis.

Dr Will's

Advising Dr Will’s, a certified B Corp producer of healthier alternatives to traditional condiments, with multiple investment rounds led by angel investors.

TransHumanity

Advising TransHumanity, a spinout from Loughborough University creating the first agentic AI platform for transport data, with its £400,000 pre-seed investment round led by SFC Capital with additional investment from Silicon Valley based Plug and Play.

upLYFT

Advising upLYFT, a health-tech innovator on its pre-seed investment round of £500,000 from Deepbridge Capital and TIME Interconnect (HK) Limited, to advance the commercialisation of its assistive-transfer and smart-wearable technologies for mobility-limited individuals.

Lumin Solutions

Advising health-tech startup Lumin Solutions, which has developed child social care management software, on their significant six-figure pre-seed investment round, backed by SFC Capital, the Development Bank of Wales and a syndicate of business angels.

HIUT Ltd

Advising jeans manufacturer Hiut Limited on its equity fund raising from a European family office.

Legal tools built for growing businesses.

One of the advantages of working with Acuity Law is that you get access to a suite of technology and knowledge solutions designed specifically to support businesses at the growth stage.

Designed and delivered by lawyers, Acuity Academy provides our clients with a wide range of different training courses, delivered face to face, through e-learning or via the web. Designed to turn complex legal obligations into clear, actionable guidance they can help start-ups cost effectively reduce risk, strengthen compliance, and empower your team to make confident, informed decisions.

Learn More

Acuity Counsel Service is a legal support service that gives your business a dedicated team of expert lawyers working as an extension of your team. With the ability to manage budget and control costs, it is ideal for start-ups that have reached the stage where they need regular, ongoing legal support but are not yet ready to hire in-house.

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Acuity Law offers a full range of legal services and other business solutions that make a real difference and help to support and protect businesses.

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Let’s talk.

General Enquiries

Andrew McGlashan

Partner

+44 (0)7581 062 884 [email protected] Connect on LinkedIn

+44 (0)333 016 3553 [email protected] Connect on LinkedIn

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