Octopus Investments Shines a £5 Million Light on Entertainment Industry Lighting Experts
March, 2019 - Birmingham, England
The award-winning venture capital team at Shoosmiths has guided the development capital team of its long-term client Octopus Investments on its £5 million growth investment into Rotolight, which creates advanced LED lighting for the photography and filmmaking industry.
Rotolight’s products have been used by the BBC, ITV’s Dancing on Ice, EA Sports and Disney, and been used in box office hits like James Bond’s Skyfall and Tom Hanks’ Captain Phillips. The funding will be used to further invest in research and development, as well as marketing and international expansion.
Alastair Peet – who leads the team which was named corporate and commercial firm (specialism) of the year (venture capital) at this year’s The Legal 500 UK Awards 2019 – said: “It’s always a pleasure working with the development capital team at Octopus and this is the sixth consecutive deal we have closed for the team in the last 12 months.
“This deal is a perfect example of the ambitious deals Octopus, the largest VCT investor in the UK, is searching for and demonstrated the experience within the venture capital team at Shoosmiths, as well as our wider offering, not to mention our solution-driven approach in order to get the deal done.”
Corporate partner Alastair Peet led on the deal with support from corporate associate Helen Burnell, corporate solicitor Michael Dyer, employment senior associate Nick Vernon, employment solicitor, Michelle Clarke, commercial partner Craig Armstrong and tax partner Tom Wilde.
Richard Court, head of development capital for Octopus Investments, said they were delighted to be backing a highly innovative, UK-based business led by a first-class management team.
“Rotolight has developed a range of market-leading products backed by substantial IP, and our growth capital will be used to further develop the product range as well as capitalising on extensive international expansion opportunities,” he added.
“This is the sixth investment by our development capital team in the past year, and Al and his team have been involved throughout. We know first-hand how Al and his team are well-recognised in the industry and their passion, enthusiasm and knowledge about the sector and their understanding of Octopus, means they are the perfect legal team for us.”
As part of the deal, former MD of Dixons and CEO of Jessops PLC, Christopher Langley, and Martin Wood, formerly of Tetley Group and Hozelock Group will be joining Rotolight’s company board of directors, as chairman and chief financial officer respectively.
In the past 12 months, the development capital team at Octopus Investments has backed a number of exciting businesses with strong growth potential, including cloud telephony business Natterbox, and online food marketplace City Pantry. The team invests between £2m and £10m, with a focus on businesses with strong technology, IP or tech-enabled services.
