Ben is an expert in M&A and venture capital transactions as well as corporate compliance.
In the JUVE Handbook of German Commercial Law Firms, a competitor is quoted as calling Ben “damn good” and he is listed as one of the 20 leading advisors in Germany for venture capital. German business-weekly Wirtschaftswoche names Ben as one of the country’s leading M&A lawyers.
German business-daily Handelsblatt in cooperation with US publisher Best Lawyers© lists him amongst Germany's best lawyers for venture capital, M&A, private equity and corporate law and Leaders League ranks Ben as one of only 15 leading venture capital lawyers in Germany (highest category).
Legal 500 Germany has awarded Ben as Private Equity & Venture Capital Lawyer of the Year 2025.
Education and Career
Ben studied law in Passau, Bonn (Ph.D., awarded the W. Rainer Walz Price 2010) and at Christ Church, Oxford (M.Jur.). Prior to co-founding YPOG (in 2021) and SMP (in 2017), he was Associated Partner at Flick Gocke Schaumburg and before that Principal Associate at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Ben frequently publishes on matters related to corporate law and corporate compliance.
Experience
Ben’s recent work highlights include advising on the following matters (some of which in a previous firm):
- IDnow on the investment and subsequent acquisition of a majority stake by Corsair Capital, on the acquisitions Wirecard Communication Services, of identity Trust Management and of Ariadnext, on a credit line extended by BlackRock as well as on the joint venture with ESYSCO
- Helsing on all of its financing rounds, including its Series C financing round, led by General Catalyst and under participation from Elad Gil, Accel, Lightspeed, Plural and Greenoaks as well as the Series B financing round, led by General Catalyst and under participation from Saab
- Dawn Capital on the exit of LeanIX to SAP as well as on various investments, including the Series A and Series B financing rounds of BRYTER and on its investment in billie.io
- Siemens Financial Services and Omnes Capital on the Series A financing round of Carbyon
- Five Season Ventures and Coefficient Capital on numerous transactions, including the sale of Just Spices to Kraft Heinz as well as the Series C financing round of KoRo
- Vsquared Ventures, HV Capital and Molten Ventures on the Series B financing round of One Data
- Burda Principal Investments on various investments, including the Series A and Series A extension financing rounds of NeoTaste
- Eight Roads on the Series B financing round of HERO Software
- Green Generation Fund on various investments, including the Series A financing round of Samara and the financing round of Jua.ai.
- Porsche Holding on its investment in Isar Aerospace
- REWE on its investment in WingCopter
- Next47 on various investments including in Alaiko
- Insight Partners and Atomico on its investment in Y42
- Atomico on various investments, including in DeepL
- Mondu on all of its financing rounds, including those led by Valar Ventures
- Clue on the Series B financing round lead by USV and Mosaic as well as the Series C financing round led by Baldton
- everphone on its Series C as well as Series C extension financing rounds led by Cadence Growth Capital
- Visionaries Club, LaFamiglia and Atomico on the exit of arculus to Jungheinreich (Xetra:Jun3)
- Molten Ventures on various investments, including the Serie A financing round of Schüttflix, the Series B financing round of Morressier as well as its investments in SimScale and HiveMQ
- Hillhouse Group on its investment in Agile Robots
- sofatutor on a financing round as well as its shareholders on the exit to Emeram Capital Partners
- Cluno on its Series B financing round as well as its shareholders on the exit to Cazoo (NYSE:CZOO)
- Flaschenpost inter alia on its Series C and D financing rounds as well as the exit to Dr. Oetker
- Franz Haniel & Cie. on the acquisition of a 50.1% stake in Emma – The Sleep Company
- Lightspeed Venture Partners and Viola Ventures on its investment in Candis
- Katjesgreenfods on various international and national investments
- signals Venture Capital on the merger of Bird and Circ
- Business Angels on the sale of Cash Payment Solutions (barzahlen.de) to Japanese Glory Group
- Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund on its investment in Tacalyx
- Battery Ventures on the Series D and Series E financing rounds of GetYourGuide as well as on its investment in Lanes & Planes
- Project A Ventures, Lakestar and Acton Capital Partners on numerous transactions
- Wunder Mobility on its Series B financing round and on the acquisition of Fleetbird
- Shareholders in Priori Data on the sale to AppScatter (AIM:APPS)
- Shareholders in Contorion on the sale to Hoffmann
- LegalZoom on all investments in Germany
- Ströer (Xetra:SAX) on the acquisition of Statista
- Shareholders in Parstream on the sale to Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO)
Qualifications
- German qualified attorney (Rechtsanwalt)
- Ph.D. in law (Dr. iur.) (Bonn University)
- MJur (Christ Church, Oxford)
Languages
- German
- English
- Valuation of start-ups
in: Fleischer /Hüttemann (eds.), Legal Handbook on Enterprise Valuation, 3rd edn., 2024 (in German), § 32, p. 1219 – 1258 (together with Tim Laas and Ruslan Savin) - (in German) - Compliance in M&A transactions
in: Schulz (Ed.), Corporate Compliance Management – Strategies and effective implementation, 2nd edn. 2020, Chapter 18, p. 607-648 - (in German) - Multiseller Transactions – Part 1: The liability regime/Part 2: The sellers' agreement
GmbHR 2019, 625-633 and 1334-1343 (together with Martin Schaper) - (in German) - Investment Agreement (Commentary to Guarantees and Remedies Section)
in: Bank/Möllmann (Eds.), Venture Capital Agreements in Germany 2017 - (in German) - M&A transactions – how much compliance is required, how little is possible?
CB 2017, 288-293 (together with Petra Schaffner) - (in German) - Step by step: Compliance due diligence
CB 2015, 233-238 (together with Moritz von Hesberg) - (in German) - Trade-offs in non-profit limited liability companies – structurally lower creditor protection?
in: Hüttemann/Rawert/K. Schmidt/Weitemeyer (eds.), Non Profit Law Yearbook 2011/2012, p. 115-146 - (in German) - Corporate law and tax exemptions for non-profits – Non-profit limited liability companies and other legal entities in-between corporate and tax law
Treatises on German and European Commercial and Business Law, Cologne 2011, reviewed by Weitemeyer, npoR 2011, 147 - (in German) - Non-profit limited liability companies following the MoMiG reform – non-profit entrepreneurial companies and interest payable on shareholder loans in lieu of equity?
GmbHR 2009, 750-759 - (in German) - The statutory model articles of association for non-profit organizations in practice
DStR 2009, 2471-2473 - (in German) - Review of Davies, Gower and Davies’ Principles of Modern Company Law, 8th edition
NZG 2009, 18 - (in German) - Registered company names – legitimacy of abbreviations designating non-profit status
NZG 2007, 656-658 - (in German)
