Harbottle & Lewis has advised UK fintech, Primer API Limited (Primer), on a £14 million Series A fundraising led by Accel, with participation from existing shareholders Balderton Capital, Speedinvest and Seedcamp.

Accel is a leading US-based venture capital firm which has been amongst the first investors in fintech infrastructure companies such as Braintree and Galileo.

The Series A fundraising closed just over six months after Primer secured £3.8 million through its seed funding round led by Balderton Capital.

Founded by Paul Anthony and Gabriel Le Roux, Primer enables e-commerce merchants and online payments facilitators to consolidate their payments services stack, seamlessly connecting to third party services such as payment service providers (PSPs), fraud providers, chargeback services, subscription billing engines, business intelligence tools, loyalty and rewards platforms.

Primer’s unified payments integration, checkout experience and workflows functionality allows merchants to quickly add new payment methods, unify fraud mitigation efforts and build sophisticated transaction routing with no code.

Corporate partner Charlie Leveque and senior associate Tom Macleod led the Harbottle & Lewis team and were assisted by associate Chien-Wei Lui.

Co-founders Paul Anthony and Gabriel Le Roux commented:

“Charlie, Tom and the team at Harbottle have advised us every step of the way since we founded Primer. They are always extremely proactive, available and responsive and they get the deal done with commercial acumen and no fuss. This, our Series A fundraising, was no exception.”

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Charlie Leveque Co-Managing Partner

Charlie is the firm’s co-managing partner and head of the corporate practice.

Charlie is the firm’s co-managing partner and head of the corporate practice.

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 Macleod Partner

Tom is a corporate partner and co-head of the venture capital and emerging companies practice.

Tom is a corporate partner and co-head of the venture capital and emerging companies practice.

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.