‘Always focused on achieving the desired results’, DLA Piper Chile's Santiago team comprises experts in early and late-stage financing rounds, including pre-seed and seed capital, Series A, B and C financing rounds, IPOs and exits. The six-member group also handles convertible note-related deals, corporate ventures, employee benefit plans and international expansions. Highlights include advising Chilean company Wild Foods, which develops healthy food products, on a $25m Series A investment round. The venture capital practice is led by Matías Zegers, who additionally co-heads the firm’s corporate, M&A and fintech practices in Chile. An ’eminence in the Latin-American venture capital domain’, Zegers’ track record includes designing venture capital financing solutions, and assisting technology and biotech companies at both start-up and scale-up levels. The department further includes Jorge Timmermann, an adviser to venture capital firms and entrepreneurs on establishing and managing investment funds and start-up vehicles, along with applications for state-driven funding. At associate level, senior Pilar Ay, who is particularly focused on the technology sector, acts for venture capital investors and emerging growth companies throughout the corporate life cycle; mid-level lawyer José Ignacio Marín advises companies and investors on forming and operating private investment funds; and the practice of corporate and venture capital practitioner Vicente Sáenz de Santa María includes financing rounds through equity or debt instruments.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘What makes DLA unique is the expertise they demonstrate in mastering M&A agreements, capital raising, and general management of the CapTable, which gives clients ongoing peace of mind regarding the strategies they design.’
  • ‘Experienced, diligent, proactive, and purposeful.’
  • ‘They combine creativity and agility when creating strategies.’
  • ‘Always focused on achieving the desired results. This is a constant attribute, regardless of which lawyer clients work with.’
  • ‘There are some lawyers who hold back, finding risks and reasons not to move forward, while DLA is focused on moving forward. ‘
  • ‘Matías Zegers - an eminence in the Latin-American VC domain.’
  • ‘Matías Zegers is truly irreplaceable. ‘
  • ‘Pilar Ay - a deep understanding of the details of every deal and term sheet encountered. Unique agility.’

Work highlights

Advising SQM Lithium Ventures on its investment transactions.
Advised Admetricks, a Chilean company specialising in competitive intelligence for online advertising, on the sale of all the shares owned by the company’s shareholders, to Similarweb UK.
Assisted Wild Foods with the negotiation and preparation of a $25m series A investment round, which was led by Glisco Partners (a Mexican private investment organisation).

Lawyers

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Practice head

Matías Zegers