The Bundle, issue #2: IPO stories from Wise, UiPath, and more

For the handful of scaleups who make it to the very top, the ultimate exit is the initial public offering. In 2021, we’ve seen a number of hugely impressive tech scaleups sprint to the line and become public companies. Just amongst the Juro customer base, this year Cazoo became CZOO, Trustpilot became TRST and Deliveroo became ROO.

Sprinting to that finish line, however, is easier said than done. It’s a transformative process for many parts of the company, and a project with legal right at its heart. Often acting as the interface between executives, bankers, the board, outside counsel and interested employees, in-house lawyers find themselves taking on a uniquely challenging initiative, alongside the huge inbox of BAU tasks they handle every day.

How do they do it? What's the experience like? How do they balance IPO work alongside the day job? And how does life change for legal once the company goes public?

We find out all this and more in The Bundle: issue #2.

What's inside? 👀

In this IPO special of our quarterly, community-led publication, you'll hear from legal leaders at:

Trainline, on how to prepare for an IPO

Trainline’s IPO was the second largest UK listing in 2019, listing on the London Stock Exchange in June 2019 with a valuation of £1.68bn. The company's General Counsel, Neil Murrin, explains how legal can plan ahead for a daunting IPO project, and how legal can speed up the process and buy back some time along the way.

Trustpilot, on the experience of going public

Trustpilot's VP Legal, Graeme Barron, reflects on his experience taking Trustpilot public. Trustpilot listed on the London Stock Exchange in March 2021, with a valuation of $1.5bn.

LendInvest, on taking a company public in three months

Ruth Pearson, General Counsel at LendInvest, shares her experience of going public in such a short amount of time, the traits to consider when choosing external counsel to support on the IPO, and the lessons she learned along the way. LendInvest listed on AIM in July 2021, with a valuation of £255.6m.

Wise, on leading the UK's first ever direct listing

Wise listed on the London Stock Exchange in July 2021, with a valuation of $11bn. The company's Head of Corporate Legal, Jessica Winter, offers her insights on the challenges involved in taking a unique approach to the IPO, with an accompanying interview from Dean Nash, Wise's General Counsel. 

UiPath, on how legal's role changes post-IPO

The work doesn't end on the date of listing, and UiPath's Global Corporate VP, Ioana Vieru, shares her experiences following UiPath's monumental listing on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2021, where the company was valued at a whopping $31bn. Read her chapter to learn about the tasks and hurdles legal may face after the date of listing, and how legal's role changes from day one of life at a public company.

Read all about their journeys and the lessons they learned along the way in our IPO special of The Bundle. Download here. 

We’re grateful for the teams at these incredible businesses for sharing their thoughts with us. And if you haven’t joined our community of scaleup lawyers yet, then sign up to access a peer network of hundreds of scaleups lawyers who can help you with the challenges you face every day.