Chris Holly

Partner
Full contact info

I love practicing at the intersection of science and the law. It's where I am with my clients on a daily basis. Helping clients create value and secure innovations is central to my work.

Passions

SCUBA diving and anything involving salt water

Collecting old jazz vinyl LPs

Oenophile, DipWSET, and Part-time Vintner

Experience

Graphyte Closes $30 Million Series A Financing

July 30, 2024

Cooley advised Graphyte on its $30 million Series A financing round, including intellectual property due diligence in connection with the deal. The Series A proceeds will enable Graphyte to launch an additional four carbon removal facilities over the course of 2025 and 2026, on its path towards removing more than 5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year by 2030.

Related contacts

Chris Holly
Partner, Washington, DC
Gordon Ho
Partner, Palo Alto

Related Practices & Industries

Cooley Advises AgroSpheres on Series B Financing

April 24, 2023

Cooley advised AgroSpheres on its $22 million Series B financing and led intellectual property due diligence in connection with the round. Cooley counsels AgroSpheres with respect to corporate matters and is the architect behind development of the company’s ever-expanding patent portfolio.

AgroSpheres’ biomanufacturing platform enables cost-effective manufacturing and successful field application of novel biological modalities. The unprecedented field success of foliar-applied AgriCell-RNAi technologies has garnered significant industry interest.

“In this unprecedented bear market, food security, environmental footprint, and supply chain resilience are of paramount importance,” said Payam Pourtaheri, founder and CEO of AgroSpheres. “We are thankful for the support from our partners at Lewis & Clark, OAS, Bidra, and Cavallo, as we take significant strides towards our vision of a future built by nature’s technologies and bring our biobased technologies to partners globally.”

Related contacts

Chris Holly
Partner, Washington, DC

Related Practices & Industries

Cooley advises food industry pioneer Nobell Foods on patent matters

July 27, 2021

Cooley has served as primary IP counsel to Nobell Foods since its founding, helping the company to protect its innovative contributions aimed at making the world’s food systems more humane and sustainable. Nobell Foods is utilizing the power of plants to reimagine the world’s food supply and produce delicious cheese from plant-derived dairy proteins. The company recently completed a $75 million Series B in 2021 to help bring its vision to the world.

Related contacts

Chris Holly
Partner, Washington, DC

Related Practices & Industries

AppHarvest Acquires Root AI

March 9, 2021

Cooley advised AppHarvest, a leading public agtech company and certified B Corp, on its acquisition of Root AI, an AI farming startup that creates intelligent robots to help manage high-tech indoor farms. In addition to advising on corporate matters, Cooley's IP team handled all patent due diligence aspects of the deal. Partner Josh Holleman led the Cooley team advising AppHarvest.

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Related contacts

Caitlin Cunningham
Special Counsel, Colorado
Joshua Holleman
Partner, Washington, DC
Dennis F. Craig II
Associate, Washington, DC
MaryBeth Shreiner
Special Counsel, Reston
Chelsea André
Associate, Colorado
Chris Holly
Partner, Washington, DC
Xander Lee
Partner, Santa Monica
TJ Graham
Partner, Palo Alto
Derek Colla
Partner, Miami

Related Practices & Industries

Cooley advises Provivi on $45.5M Series C-2 Round

January 8, 2021

Cooley advised emerging crop protection company Provivi on its $45.5 million series C-2 financing round led by Vivo Capital, with participation from returning shareholders. Provivi has developed a truly disruptive technological platform that enables the scalable production of environmentally friendly insect pheromone products. These products are able to naturally disrupt the mating cycle of insect pests and reduce the current overreliance upon non-sustainable synthetic insecticides. "The Series C-2 financing is a new milestone in the growth of our company. It builds upon a very successful year where Provivi achieved several product registrations worldwide and launched our first product commercially in Mexico," said Dr. Pedro Coelho, cofounder and CEO of Provivi.

Related contacts

Chris Holly
Partner, Washington, DC
Rachel Proffitt
Partner and Chief Executive Officer, San Francisco
Rachel M. Burns
Special Counsel, San Francisco
Julia Gage
Associate, San Francisco
Ron Metzger
Paralegal Specialist, San Francisco
Marcelo Pomeranz
Associate, San Diego
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He is incredibly technically minded and helps us broaden our claims.

Chambers USA, 2024

Admissions and credentials

District of Columbia

Mississippi

Registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

Tennessee

Rankings and accolades

Chambers USA: Intellectual Property: Patent Prosecution – District of Columbia (2021 – 2024)

Fellows of the American Bar Foundation: Elected Member

Seed World: Top Ten Next Generation Leaders

Super Lawyers: Rising Star

The National Law Journal: Rising Star

Memberships and affiliations

American Intellectual Property Law Association

American Seed Trade Association

Patent & Trademark Office Society

Seed Innovation and Protection Alliance

Chris is regularly retained by clients in the agricultural sector for strategic IP advice. As one client notes, “Chris is amazing to work with - he is extremely responsive and understands our technology and our strategy. He is very strategic and thinks outside of the box."

Chambers USA, 2022