Partner

Nicholas’s main practice area focuses primarily on private M&As with a specific emphasis on private equity, joint venture and venture capital work. He regularly acts for venture capital investors, corporate venture capital arms and startups.

Chambers Asia-Pacific notes that Nicholas “has a growing market reputation in the startups space in Singapore” and that he is “active on a range of early to later-stage financings with VC clients and has particular knowledge of the Indonesian market, as well as deals in Thailand and the Philippines”.

Nicholas is a member of the Venture Capital Model Investment Agreements (VIMA) working group, which was jointly established by the Singapore Academy of Law’s Promotion of Singapore Law Committee and the Singapore Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. He is also a facilitator for the Singapore Legal Institute of Legal Education Part B Course.

In 2018, Nicholas was seconded to the Corporate Department in the Hong Kong office of a magic circle firm.

Nicholas graduated overall second in the class of 2013 from the National University of Singapore with an LL.B. (First Class Honours) degree with multiple academic awards (including the Law Society of Singapore Book Prize, the Shook Lin & Bok Prize, the Tort Law Prize, Yong Heng Kim Book prize in Contract Law, and Punch Coomaraswamy Prize in Law of Evidence) and holds an LL.M. (Master of Laws) degree from the New York University School of law. He joined the Firm after he was called to the Singapore Bar in 2014.

Work Highlights

  • Acted for Softbank Vision Fund 2 on its:
    • US$100 million Series C round investment in Biofourmis, a software start-up that predicts problems for patients with heart conditions; and
    • Series D financing round of Advance.AI which raised more than US$400 million. Advance AI is a Singapore headquartered big data company. This transaction was awarded best VC/PE deal in 2021 by FinanceAsia.
  • Acted for Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets on its acquisition of 50% of Oiltanking Odfjell Terminal Singapore Pte. Ltd., which owns and operates a bulk petrochemical storage facility located on Jurong Island, Singapore.
  • Acted for TEG, a portfolio company of Affinity Equity Partners, on its acquisition of the leading live entertainment ticketing company in Malaysia, TicketCharge.
  • Acted for Grab on its joint venture with Tokyo Century and its acquisition of tech start-up Bento Invest (now known as Grab Invest), a Capital Markets Services Licensee B2B digital wealth management solution.
  • Acted for various venture capital firms on investments in Singapore and SEA ventures, businesses and structures, including convertible bonds and warrants issuances.

Publications