Harbottle & Lewis (H&L) has advised Kindred Concepts Limited, founded by long-standing client Adam Breeden, on their plans to launch a new immersive social entertainment venue concept incorporating F1 racing simulators that is due to be rolled out on a worldwide basis. Adam is also the co-founder of successful entertainment venues Puttshack, Flight Club and Bounce.
The concept is aimed at a mass audience, not just F1 fans, with the format of the venues taking inspiration from the other competitive socialising venues that Adam has created. Kindred has entered into a unique global licence agreement with Formula 1 with ambitions to open as many as 30 venues worldwide in the next five years.
H&L has advised since the early days of the project. The Sports and Interactive Entertainment teams helped Kindred navigate all commercial aspects of the complex global deals with Formula 1, games developer Studio 397 and simulator supplier, Vesaro. The Corporate team advised on all aspects of the investment from, among others, entertainment industry investor, Imbiba. H&L’s Employment team provided support on employment contracts for the management team.
Corporate partner Colin Howes and senior associate Tom Macleod led the H&L team on the corporate aspects, with Sports partner Bob Mitchell and associate Mike Jones leading on the commercial aspects. They were supported by Corporate Tax partner David Scott, Corporate associates Katerina Capras and Xander Walters, Employment senior associate Sarah Verrecchia and associate Mark Primrose.
Colin Howes said: “We’re delighted to see this fascinating new social entertainment business get properly under way. We started working with Adam on this when it was just him, an idea and a possible meeting with F1. We set the company up, helped with taking on the prospective management team and advised on the commercial and investment deals from term sheets stage to signing.
“We were able to bring together our experience of advising early stage companies large and small, our sport and gaming industry expertise and a ‘can-do’ approach to help put in place the framework for a successful launch. It has been a delight working with Adam, Kindred’s Chief Development Officer Diane Jervis, Systems and Project Director Jonique Izidoro, CFO Jonathan Peters and Chair Stephen Murphy. We look forward to the opening of the launch venue and the planned rapid roll-out of venues after that. And to trying out the simulator…”
On working with the H&L team, CFO Jonathan Peters commented: “Harbottle’s ability to advise on all aspects of this transaction was invaluable throughout, demonstrating the team’s capacity to handle complex transactions requiring expertise from across the Firm.
“In particular, Colin, Tom and Katerina on the corporate side, alongside Bob and Mike on the commercial/IP aspects of the deal, showed a deep technical knowledge aligned with a pragmatic, entrepreneurial spirit which ensured a top quality service throughout.”
