Area of Expertise

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Azmul is a tri-qualified lawyer, admitted to practice law in England, India, and Singapore. Over the last 21 years, Azmul has developed particular expertise in complex, cross-border corporate transactions (mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, joint ventures and strategic alliances, private equity, venture and angel financing), commercial contracts involving technology-related matters (SAAS, PAAS, outsourcing, franchising and licensing) and regulatory matters in a range of areas that impact business  (corporate governance, securities & futures regulations, data protection, crypto-currency regulation) and evaluating innovative business models disrupting traditional industries.

 

Azmul has worked extensively with MNC and Asian corporations, family-owned businesses, and high-net worth individuals. His geographical experience spans South Asia, particularly the India-Singapore corridor, ASEAN and the Middle East. He has lived and worked in Mumbai, Singapore and London. 

 

He has been rated as a leading practitioner for the TMT sector, and focusses currently on clients in emerging technology such as FinTech, HealthTech, AdTech, Big Data, IOT, BlockChain, Internet & e-Commerce. Prior to founding Collyer Law LLC, Azmul was Consultant Partner at Olswang, and Partner with Shook Lin & Bok. He has also worked with Silver Circle firm, Berwin Leighton Paisner in London, and WongPartnership in Singapore.

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Awards and Accolades

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Azmul is ranked and recommended by several legal industry directories including Chambers Asia (For M&A (India): Experts Located Overseas), Asia-Pacific Legal 500 (for Financial Services: Regulatory) and Global Law Experts (for TMT). Azmul was rated a “Top 40-under-40” lawyer (Asian Legal Business, October 2016), in “Singapore A-List of Top 100 Lawyers” (Asia Business Law Journal, 2018 and 2019) and the International A-List 2020 (Indian Business Law Journal). Recent awards include “A-List 2020" Top 100 India-focused lawyers at an international law firm - India Business Law Journal and shortlisted for “Dealmaker of the Year” for ALB SE Asia Law Awards 2020 and “ALB Super 50 TMT Lawyers” for 2022 and 2023.

 

Interests

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When he is not counselling technology companies on legal strategies to disrupt incumbents, Azmul enjoys watching period drama, emcee-ing pub quizzes, and secretly hopes to host a travel show someday.

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Representative Experience

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A.         Corporate  / M&A / PE & VC

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• Advised Sky Mavis (the company behind “Axie Infinity”) in relation to its seed, Series A, Series B and Series B-X rounds, of an aggregate of USD 3311 million from marque investors led by Andreesen Horowitz, Accel Partners and Paradigm

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• Advised Shopup, Bangladesh’s leading B2B platform for neighbourhood retail, on its seed, Series A and Series B financings of an aggregate of USD 231.7 million, led by Valar Ventures, Sequoia, Prosus, Veon, Lonsdale, KDV and Flourish

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• Advised Avendus on Series C investment in Zeta Investments Holdings Pte. Ltd., including a $250 million funding from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Sodexho and Mastercard.Advised Avendus on Series C investment in Zeta Investments Holdings Pte. Ltd., including a USD 250 million funding from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Sodexho and Mastercard

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• Advised Serentica Renewables, a decarbonization platform delivering renewable energy to large-scale commercial and industrial customers in India, on various corporate matters including fundraising (USD 650 million investment from KKR), corporate reorganisation, employee incentive plans and other corporate advisory

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• Advised in relation to Series C fundraising (and secondary sales) of Krazybee for an aggregate of USD 70 million, from investors Premji Invest, TPG-backed NewQuest Capital Partners, Motilal Oswal Private Equity, Mirae Asset Ventures, and Alpine Capital

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• Advised Flipkart on a USD 36 million Series A round investment in The Goat Lab Brands, with other investors including Tiger Global Management, Flipkart Ventures, Mayfield, Nordstar and Better Capital.

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• Advised Holmusk, a Singapore-headquartered digital health company focused on solving complex problems in the healthcare care, on its seed, pre-series A, and bridge round financing, aggregating to SGD 9.75 million.

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• Advised MoneyTap, India's first app-based credit line, on their USD 9 million Series A investment round, and in its Series B financing round of one billion rupees (US 70 million) led by Aquiline Technology Growth, RTP Global and Sequoia Capital India, along with Japanese and Korean funds

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• Advised Docquity, a private social network for medical professionals in its Series A, Series B and Series C fund-raising, for an aggregate of $57.5 million, from existing and new investors, led by Itochu Corporation,  KDV Capital, IGlobe Partners, Global Brain and Singapore Press Holdings

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• Advised HolidayMe, a travel-tech company customizing international and domestic travel plans for its customers, in connection with a Series C fundraising round, including a secondary involving purchase of shares from an existing shareholder through a share buyback.

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• Advising the world's largest global higher education network on the proposed corporate structure and contract arrangement in connection with a potential joint venture with or acquisition of an edtech start-up

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• Advised Nuo Capital in connection with early-stage fundraising and corporate advisory matters, including investments from Sequoia India’s Surge, Polychain Capital and Consensys Ventures

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• Advised Rynan Technologies, an agtech company providing environment-friendly products for coding, marking, packaging etc in connection with investment by Sojitz Corporation.

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• Advised A-1 Capital, a UHNW family office, in connection with investment and secondary sale for various rounds of venture financing for Validus Investment Holdings

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• Advised Holmusk on an asset acquisition, from an international pharmaceutical conglomerate, all of the goodwill and assets of the health solutions division for an undisclosed amount.

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• Advised Willa Bright/Gaw Capital in relation to the (aborted) purchase of a majority interest of the share capital of an Indian data centre business for circa USD 59m from the existing shareholders.

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• Advised Veative Labs, a global provider of education technology and learning simulations for schools and industries, in relation to the sale of all intellectual property and sale of its wholly owned Indian subsidiary, Veative Labs Private Limited, in each case, to UK-listed Dev Clever Holdings for a combination of cash and shares, representing a value of GBP 54.75 million.

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• Advised Idem Labs, a technology company that operates a cloud-based group reservations software for hotels and event organisers to help maximise revenue, on the acquisition of all the assets, cash and working capital to Groups360, through an online marketplace, Groupsyn.

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B.         Commercial / Regulatory / Employment / Advisory

 

• Advised a cloud-based legal tech platform on regulatory issues in relation to offering services via a legal tech platform to start-ups and SMEs in Singapore

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• Advising a global media company on various licensing, gambling and other regulatory issues in relation to a marketing campaign for world's best-selling Scotch whisky in Singapore

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• Advised a leading SE Asian music technology publisher on various corporate advisory matters, including establishment of ESOP, and corporate reorganisation

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• Advised Veative Labs, a global provider of education technology and learning simulations for schools and industries, in relation to a complicated multi-jursidictional intellectual property assignment

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• Advising international airline oneworld global airline alliance on its travel insurance offering in various markets/jurisdictions, including in Singapore and reviewing new master agreement to be signed with the travel insurance provider

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• Advising a leading game developer on several blockchain-based projects in relation to NFTs and the metaverse on regulatory issues relating to gaming, gambling and advertising laws in Singapore

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• Advising a marketing technology start-up on potential legal issues in Singapore relating to data mining and scraping

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• Advising an IT manufacture and distributor company which had recently moved its operations from Hong Kong to Singapore, and reviewing all its existing distributor agreements and manufacturer agreements governed by Hong Kong law to be amended and “localised” in accordance with Singapore law

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• Advised a leading global airline on a draft sale and purchase agreement for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Credits in compliance with Singapore law

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• Advising on a global leader in the creation of children’s fiction as well as programmes on TV and apps, in relation to conducting a review of an IP license agreement permitting a subsidiary of one of the largest China technology companies to create films and TV series based on the client’s copyright

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• Advising on a master services agreement and statement of work to highlight relevant risks in providing services to a leading integrated resort in Singapore

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Speaking Engagements

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• Panelist, “Should anti-trust rules be reshaped in light of the evolution of digital markets and data privacy?”, AIJA Annual Congress (August 22, 2023) Rio de Janeiro
   

• Roundtable Speaker, “Artificial Intelligence – Generative AI - Whither IP and Content Liability”, ITechLaw Asia Pacific Conference (March 8, 2023) Singapore
   

• Moderator, “Blockchain/Crypto Winter”, ITechLaw Asia Pacific Conference (March 9, 2023) Singapore
   

• Speaker, Legal Masterclass on "Negotiating a Termsheet", Bangladesh Angels (January 27, 2023) Dhaka
   

• Speaker, “Masterclass on ESOP”, Accelerating Asia (December 13, 2022) Online
   

• Panelist, “Fireside chat - Leading Strategically and Leading People.” INSEAD Business School (March 24, 2022) Singapore
   

• Speaker, “Legal Issues around NFTs”, ITechLaw European Conference (October 20, 2022) Zurich
   

• Panelist, “The New Normal of Financial Deal Structuring?”, AIJA Annual Congress (August 24, 2022) Singapore
   

• Keynote Speaker, “Essentials of an International Franchise Contract”, Think Global Conference (April 23, 2021) Online
   

• Panelist – “Shifting Gears for the Future of Work”, Spectrum (July 15, 2021) Singapore
   

• Panelist, “Doxing – When Online Vigilantism is a Crime”, Spectrum (February 4, 2020) Singapore
   

• Moderator, “Implementing PDP Bill – Wishlist for the Industry”, ITechLaw International India Conference (January 30, 2020) Bangalore
   

• Speaker, “Masterclass on Managing M&A Deal Making”, The Economic Times (2018), Mumbai
   

• Speaker, “Crypto Regulation: the state of play”, Blockfest, (September 2018)
   

• Speaker, “Can Big Law Innovate: Perspectives from a Recovering Big Law-yer”, TechLaw.Fest (April 5, 2018) Singapore
   

• Speaker, “International ICO Strategies”, Starfish and Royse Law (2018) San Francisco
   

• Moderator, “Applied Data Protection”, ItechLaw European Conference (October 19, 2017) Stockholm