Colm Rafferty

OVERVIEW

Colm is head of Maples and Calder's Corporate team in the Maples Group's Dublin office. Colm has extensive experience in company law and corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, venture capital, cross-border mergers and private equity investments. He has been involved in many of Ireland's most significant equity financings and transactions involving Irish private technology companies. Colm also has extensive experience advising institutional financial investors and private equity investors investing in and acquiring Irish assets. His practice includes Irish inward investment projects and other cross border transactions. Colm is a sought after advisor to many of Ireland's most successful venture-backed technology companies, having represented such companies as AMCS, Movidius and Web Reservations.

BACKGROUND

Colm joined the Maples Group in 2007. He previously worked for a large Irish corporate law firm. Colm has been ranked as a leading corporate lawyer and recommended by a number of directories, including Chambers Global, The Legal 500 and IFLR 1000.     

"The go-to person in Ireland for high-growth, technology companies. He’s an extremely talented attorney who also is pragmatic in approach. He takes an incredibly strong interest in his clients and has unwavering commitment."  (The Legal 500 EMEA 2023)

"An outstanding commercial lawyer with vast commercial / legal knowledge and experience. Colm has been our ‘go-to’ external adviser for many years and has worked closely with the company through its evolution and successful growth over the past 10 years. Colm has a deep understanding of our business and therefore considers any question or transaction from both a legal and commercial aspect. His advice is not just legally sound, but practical and commercially focused. This together with his huge experience and ability to understand and advise on complex matters, timely delivery, coordination across multiple teams both internally and externally and his approachability makes him stand out from his peers."  (The Legal 500 EMEA 2023)

"His commercial awareness is a massive asset to any transaction. His practical and logical arguments give him the ability to mediate between the various parties which really speeds up the process and adds a lot of value."  Chambers Global 2022 

"Acted on the other side of a transaction to me, but he was results focused, dedicated and high quality"  (The Legal 500 EMEA 2021)

"Maintains a strong reputation for his significant experience in M&A deals in the technology sector. He is well-versed in venture capital transactions and equity investments, and acts for both sellers and buyers."  (Chambers Global 2021)

"Very good understanding of the Irish tech scene.”  (Chambers Global 2020)

"Very sharp, engaged and hands-on in transactions."  (Chambers Global 2019)

“Superb – commercial, personable, capable, and tough.”  (IFLR 1000 2018)

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

• 3D4Medical on its sale to Elsevier/RELX plc
• Altify on its sale to Upland Software
• Altocloud on its sale to Genesys
• AMCS Group on its investment led by Insight Venture Partners and numerous acquisitions by AMCS Group
• Asavie on its sale to Akamai Technologies
• Boxever on its sale to Sitecore
• Brightflag on its equity fundraising led by One Peak Partners
• Cardinal Capital Group on its investments in Luzern eCommerce, Mowlam Healtcare and Sim Local
• Carlyle Cardinal Ireland on various Irish investments including Abtran and Carroll's Meats
• Clavis Insight on its sale to Ascential plc
• CurrencyFair on its acquisition of Convoy Payments
• Digital Marketing Institute on an investment led by Spectrum Equity
• Draper Esprit on its investments in Sweepr and Roomex
• LearnUpon on its investment by Summit Partners
• MML Capital Partners on its investments in IdentiGEN, Agenda Communications and Irish Homecare
• Movidius on its sale to Intel Corporation
• NearForm on its investment led by Columbia Capital
• Safefood360 on its sale to LGC
• Scopely on its acquisition of Digit Games
• Sky Aviation Leasing International on its sale to Goshawk Aviation
• SportCaller on its sale to Bally's Corporation
• Sysnet Global Solutions on the investments by FTV Capital and True Wind Capital
• Taoglas on its acquisitions of ThinkWireless, Firmwave and ThinkSmarter
• Taxamo on its acquisition by Vertex
• Teamwork on its investment from Bregal Milestone
• The Icon Group on its sale to Tracsis plc.

View all recent corporate transactions