Palo Alto – May 23, 2019 – Cooley advised Defy Partners on the oversubscribed closing of its second fund at $262 million. Partner John Clendenin led the Cooley team advising Defy.
“The high demand and rapid close of Defy II is a reflection of our premier limited partners’ understanding that entrepreneurs want more than just capital to build their businesses and that outsized venture returns have and will always come from having high ownership early in the life cycle of entrepreneurial companies,” Neil Sequeira, Defy co-founder and managing director, said in a news release. “We are lucky to have a history of investing in experienced and first-time founders, where we can act as a partner and member of the team and put in real effort into helping them build their businesses at scale.”
Founded in 2016, Defy is focused exclusively on early Series A rounds, an underserved part of the venture landscape. Defy's aim is to help companies, after seed funding, mature and scale into companies ready for growth capital. The firm's founding team has more than 40 years’ experience in helping successful entrepreneurs grow companies like The Honest Company, Nest, Elemental, Dropcam and more.
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