A spate of deals in the tech sector has helped South West law firm Ashfords improve its ranking in a global league table of the most active in venture capital and private equity-backed transactions.
The firm has moved up from fourth to third in Europe in the latest quarterly report produced by international financial data group PitchBook. 
Ashfords, which has an office in Bristol, is the only independent UK law firm to appear in the top five most active law firms in Europe.
PitchBook’s annual global league tables detail top investors by region, location of headquarters and assets under management, as well as the most active law firms and acquirers of private equity-backed and venture capital-backed companies.
Ashfords partner and head of its technology sector, Chris Dyson, said: “The technology team have had another busy quarter, so it is great to be recognised once again by PitchBook.”
The improved PitchBook ranking comes as Ashfords enjoys positive references in both Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500 – the two key legal directories which have been published in the past week.
The firm employs around 500 people across its offices in Exeter, London, Bristol, Taunton, Tiverton and Plymouth.
Among deals completed globally by Ashfords in the third quarter were:
- Advising a syndicate of investors including Eden Ventures, Notion Capital and BGF Ventures on the $350m sale of NewVoiceMedia, a provider of cloud-based contact centre technology and services, to NYSE-listed Vonage.
- Advising apprenticeship platform WhiteHat on its $4m investment from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Village Global, PeopleTech Partners, Anil Aggarwal and Wendy Tan White.
- Advising Oxford Capital Partners on an investment into recruitment platform Juggle Jobs.
- Advising existing investors in Brightpearl on a $15m growth round led by Cipio.
- Advising driving instructor and insurance platform miDrive on an investment round via crowdfunding platform Crowdcube.
- Advising Technology Venture Partners on the sale of a majority stake in hemp-based food and drink business Braham & Murray Limited to PE fund Inverleith.
