Strictly Business

A Business Law Blog for Entrepreneurs, Startups, Venture Capital, and the Private Fund Industry.

About Alexander J. Davie

Alexander Davie is a corporate and securities attorney based in Nashville, Tennessee. Businesses of many varieties rely on his counsel and judgment throughout all stages of their growth. In particular, fund managers and investment management professionals seek the expertise Alex gained when he served as general counsel to a private investment fund. Alex also has significant experience and enjoys working with companies and entrepreneurial ventures, especially within the technology industry. As a believer in technology's ability to enrich people's lives and allowing people to connect with each other in new ways, he is passionate about helping tech startups achieve success. He is active in Nashville's startup community as a mentor at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center and participates in numerous other events geared towards making Nashville a nationally ranked location for starting a business.

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Dos and Don’ts of Conducting a Rule 506(b) Offering

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When raising capital, a company must comply with securities laws. As previously discussed, all offerings of securities, must either be registered with the SEC or exempt from such registration. Rule 506(b) is the most commonly used securities exemption for private companies. Even after complying with the basics of this exemption, there are many nuanced requirements that, if missed, can jeopardize qualifying under the exemption. Failure to comply with Rule 506(b) can subject an issuer and its officers and directors to various penalties. The SEC and state regulators can institute investigations and administrative and civil actions, enter various orders, and impose significant monetary penalties, and can transmit evidence to the U.S. Attorney General, who can bring criminal proceedings. In addition, violating securities registration requirements entitles the purchasers to rescission rights under federal and state laws. This blog post compiles some of the best practices for conducting a 506(b) offering in a bullet-pointed list for easy reference.

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The Different Meanings of the Word “Registration” for Private Funds

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One of the first questions that new private fund advisers often ask me is whether they will need to “register” with the SEC. They are often thinking in terms of registration as an investment adviser. However, even if a fund adviser is exempt from registration as an investment adviser with the SEC, he or she also needs to understand the impact of other federal securities laws, such as the Securities Act of 1933 and the Investment Company Act of 1940, as well as the impact of state securities laws, including state investment adviser registration requirements. I often hear new fund advisers say that they intend to rely on a particular exemption from one law and assume this exemption applies across the board to all securities laws. This post will explore the different statutes and regulations that govern private fund advisers and the registration exemptions which are usually relied upon.

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The Venture Capital Adviser Exemption Explained

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venture capitalSection 203(l) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the “Advisers Act”), also known as the venture capital adviser exemption, provides that an investment adviser that solely advises venture capital funds is exempt from registration with the SEC under the Advisers Act. The term “venture capital fund” is not defined in the text of the Advisers Act; instead, the term is defined in SEC Rule 203(l)-1(a) as a private fund that meets certain conditions. This article looks at each of these conditions and explains what is needed to meet them. [Read more…]

Is New York’s Form 99 Required When a Rule 506 Offering Has New York Investors?

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The vast majority of private companies raising capital use Rule 506 of Regulation D, which, if complied with, ensures the securities being sold are exempt from registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) because the offering of these securities does not involve “any public offering.” One of the primary advantages of a Rule 506 offering is that it is considered an offering of “covered securities,” which means that individual states cannot require issuers who meet the conditions of Rule 506 to register their offerings at the state level. By granting covered security status to Rule 506 offerings, Congress greatly reduced the compliance costs of companies raising private capital who would otherwise have to comply with the unique registration or exemption requirements of each state where one of their investors happened to live.

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Intro to Private Equity Funds

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private equity fundA private equity fund is an investment entity formed by an investment adviser (often also referred to as a fund manager or sponsor), that raises capital from investors to make investments in private companies under a specified investment strategy. Typically, the investors commit to investing a certain amount of capital over time, in one or more capital calls made over the course of the private equity fund’s life cycle. The investors are passive and do not participate in the management of the fund or the selection of its investments. The fund manager is responsible for investing the assets pursuant to the fund’s investment strategy. Additionally, private equity funds are often “blind” (in that the investor does not know in advance what their money will be invested in) and anonymous (in that no investor knows the identities of the other investors). [Read more…]

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