The Midwest has established itself as a fast-growing region in the national venture capital market. Nowhere is that growth more evident than in Ann Arbor: with nearly half of the startups that raised venture capital funding in Michigan in 2021 located here.
Gunderson Dettmer’s Ann Arbor office was founded in 2015 to bring our deep experience, practical advice and extensive industry relationships to founders, emerging companies and venture capital and growth equity investors in the Midwest. Since then, our team has grown significantly while remaining deeply connected to the firm’s offices in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, New York, Boston and other tech hubs, offering local startups and investors world-class advice from a team passionate about their ecosystem.
Our team’s entrepreneurial spirit has made us a great match for this growing market. Our attorneys remain singularly focused on the startup and emerging company market, representing venture capital and growth equity investors and private companies at all stages and in a variety of industries, including cybersecurity, mobility, life sciences, consumer, fintech, and software. We built our firm to scale up with our clients while remaining nimble enough to keep pace with rapid industry shifts, allowing us to address clients’ goals at every stage of their businesses.
Our Ann Arbor team has closed over $15 billion in venture and growth equity financings for company and fund clients. Gunderson Dettmer also handled public company client Coupa’s multi-billion dollar acquisition of Llamasoft, a transaction that is recognized as the largest venture-backed startup acquisition in Michigan history.
PitchBook has ranked Gunderson Dettmer as the top law firm globally for eight years in a row, and we are routinely ranked by PitchBook as the most active law firm in the Great Lakes region for venture financing transactions, credited with over 450 venture financings and exits handled by the Ann Arbor team.
While we are invested in the Midwest ecosystem, our work also takes us far beyond the region. Attorneys in our Ann Arbor office also represent companies and investors on both coasts, and in transactions around the world.
OUR WORK
Our Ann Arbor attorneys focus on the core needs of fast-growing companies and venture capital and growth equity funds, including:
Company Representation: Forming, Scaling & Maturing
- Entrepreneurs and emerging company representation
- Pre-venture, venture and growth equity financings for private companies
- Corporate governance and strategy for private and public companies
- Licensing, strategic partnering and commercial transactions
- Life sciences licensing and strategic partnering transactions
- Mergers and acquisitions, both sell-side and buy-side
Fund Representation: Accessing & Deploying Capital
- Venture capital fund portfolio investments
- Growth equity fund investments, both early-stage and late-stage
The team also works seamlessly with practitioners in other offices to provide clients with world-class support for:
- Venture capital and growth equity fund formation, operations and compliance
- Executive compensation needs for private and public companies
- Labor and employment issues for companies and funds
- Debt financing and secured transactions
- Data privacy and compliance issues
- IPOs and direct listings
- Capital markets and ongoing public company representation
- Antitrust and CFIUS issues
- Tax issues
BEYOND THE WORK
We built our firm around the belief that technology will make a remarkable impact on the world. To that end, we deeply support the forward-thinkers and the strivers—those who will work to make change. We’ve forged strong relationships with many entrepreneurial groups and organizations, including the Michigan Venture Capital Association, the Illinois Venture Capital Association and Endeavor, among others. We also have a strong connection to the University of Michigan Law School, where our attorneys have taught classes on venture capital and entrepreneurship.