Founded by former leaders of Braintree and PayPal, Primer is the unified infrastructure for global payments. Its single platform gives finance and payments teams the visibility and control to reduce complexity, improve performance, and capture more revenue. Trusted by leading companies including Get Your Guide, Dialpad, Rail Europe, Printful, Lime, and loveholidays across ecommerce, travel, fintech, and digital platforms, Primer has to date raised $170 million from investors including Sofina, Peak XV Partners, ICONIQ, Tencent, Accel, Balderton, and Speedinvest.
This Series C round was led by Sofina, with participation from Peak XV Partners and existing investors. The proceeds from the round will be used to invest in Primer’s AI capabilities and to drive the company’s expansion in the US market, where Primer aims to grow its revenues to account for more than a third of its business by 2028.
The transaction was led by co-managing partner Charlie Leveque, partner Tom Macleod and managing associate Rosie Marston, with support from associates Julia Routledge and Alexander Vinogradov-Wouters.
On working with Harbottle & Lewis, Primer co-founder Gabriel Le Roux commented:
“The Harbottle team has been by our side since we founded Primer and they have been brilliant partners for us on our journey; their advice and support has been invaluable at every stage.”
Charlie Leveque added:
“We are proud and delighted to have supported the Primer team on achieving this milestone. The success of this fundraising round is testament to their talent, hard work and vision, and paves the way for an exciting new chapter for the business.
We have advised Primer since it was founded on various corporate, regulatory and commercial matters, as well as its investment rounds. Our work for Primer demonstrates the depth and breadth of our offering to emerging companies as they scale, as well as our ability to advise on complex and high-value later stage investments.”
We advise on a broad range of corporate and corporate finance transactions including investments, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and private equity transactions. Learn more about our corporate practice here.
Outside of his management roles, Charlie advises on a wide range of corporate transactions from private and public mergers and acquisitions to investments, joint ventures, fundraisings and shareholder arrangements involving private equity, venture capital, family office and strategic parties. He has advised on a number of IPOs on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.
His clients comprise investors, funds and companies of all sizes, from startups to international corporations in a wide range of industries; he is particularly experienced in advising clients in the technology, media, entertainment, retail and leisure sectors. He is also passionate about advising entrepreneurs, accompanying them from the inception of their ideas to exit.
Charlie is a member of the British Screen Advisory Council and the EIS Association.
Tom advises founders, growing entrepreneurial businesses, venture capital funds and angel investors on a broad range of corporate matters including acquisitions and disposals, exits, all forms of financing rounds (S/EIS, venture capital, venture debt, VCT, growth capital), joint ventures, corporate restructurings and share incentivisation schemes.
He is seen as a rising star in the industry and is known for combining excellent technical skills alongside a pragmatic, commercial approach. Tom has a particular focus on advising high-growth technology companies and is equally adept advising on early stage investments or later stage transactions for both investors and investees alike. Tom is also part of the firm’s international strategy group, with a particular focus on the USA.
Tom trained at CMS, before joining the corporate practice at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as a newly qualified solicitor. He joined Harbottle & Lewis in February 2017.
Rosie’s practice focuses on supporting startups and investors in the venture capital ecosystem. She has extensive experience advising on a wide range of corporate transactions, including venture capital and growth stage fundraisings, mergers and acquisitions, shareholder arrangements, early stage SEIS/EIS investments, convertible instruments (including ASAs, SAFEs and convertible loans), founder disputes, share incentive schemes (including EMI options), joint ventures and corporate reorganisations.
Rosie acts for startup and scale-up companies, entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capital funds, family offices and other corporate investors across a wide range of sectors, with particular experience advising clients in the technology sector.
Rosie trained and qualified at Allen & Overy, where she worked in the corporate M&A team for four and a half years, including secondments to the Singapore office and a client secondment to Virgin Management. She subsequently spent two years at law firm MJ Hudson, before joining Harbottle & Lewis in June 2023.
Rosie is passionate about improving the existing gender imbalance within the startup community and has co-written two articles about how diversity has been threatened by rule changes in the UK venture capital ecosystem, both published by FT Adviser. Read the articles here and here.
Julia has experience advising clients on mergers and acquisitions, fundraising, governance and shareholder arrangements.
Julia trained and qualified at Slaughter and May, where she worked on domestic and cross-border investments, mergers and acquisitions, and undertook a client secondment to a FTSE 100 asset manager. She joined Harbottle & Lewis in January 2026.
He advises on M&A and venture capital transactions, with a particular focus on supporting founders and high-growth companies, from early stage through to exit. He assists on equity fundraisings, group reorganisations, and shareholder arrangements.
Before joining Harbottle & Lewis in March 2026, Alex trained and qualified at MBM Commercial where he advised early-stage tech and life sciences companies, venture capital funds, and private equity houses.