Lauren Creel

Cooley advised SoftBank as the lead investor on London-based VR company Improbable’s $502 million Series B funding round. A transatlantic Cooley team worked on this record-breaking transaction.

Cooley advised SoftBank Vision Fund on its agreement to invest $450 million in Compass, making it the largest real estate tech investment in US history. Partner Matthew Bartus led the Cooley team advising the fund.

Cooley advised California-based agricultural biotech growth company Pivot Bio on its $100 million Series C funding round, co-led by repeat investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures and a global investment company. Pivot Bio has raised $186 million to date and plans to use the funds to scale-up its microbial nitrogen technology that helps farmers boost crop yield and reduce reliance on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. The funding will also be used to help the company expand internationally. "The strong backing by our Series C investors enables Pivot Bio to redefine the future of fertilizer and provide the world's farmers with a new nitrogen source. Based on remarkable demand, we expect to ramp up from our large current footprint to millions of additional acres in the next growing season." said Karsten Temme, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Pivot Bio, in a news release.

Cooley advised Triphase Accelerator Corporation in its partnership and option-to-acquire arrangement with Celgene to advance a pre-clinical therapeutic developed to treat leukemia and other blood cancers. Under the terms of the agreement, Triphase received an upfront payment of $40 million and, upon exercise of the option, will be eligible to receive up to $940 million in contingent development, regulatory and sales milestones.

Cooley advised Lyell Immunopharma, a T cell reprogramming company dedicated to the mastery of T cells to cure patients with solid tumors, on its $425 million initial public offering of 25,000,000 shares of its common stock. Partners Dave Peinsipp, Charlie Kim, Chad Mills and Lauren Creel led the Cooley team advising Lyell on its public debut, which marks the third largest biotech IPO in history.