Our Partners



Vinod Joseph

Partner

Corporate and M&A, Private Equity & Venture Capital, Finance, Technology and Data Privacy,

Vinod has over 21 years’ expertise as a corporate and commercial lawyer, of which seven were in London.

He has extensive experience in structuring and setting up private equity and venture capital funds, preparing fund documents and obtaining requisite regulatory approvals for such funds. He has also supervised and worked on many transactions involving investments by funds in Indian companies.

Vinod has also assisted many banks with documentation for their fund based and non-fund based facilities. Advising on trade finance documents is one of Vinod’s strengths.

Vinod has for long been interested in technology and has advised a number of tech players on issues such as data privacy, migration of data, outsourcing and regulatory approvals for cross-border migration of data. Data privacy and data security are increasingly big ticket items and Vinod has experience in advising both tech companies and entities which process large quantities of sensitive data (such as banks), in best practices and contractual safeguards.

Vinod started his career with the Chambers of Zia Mody in Mumbai in 1998. In London he worked for Gowling WLG, Reed Smith and Kotak Mahindra (UK) Limited. After returning to Mumbai in 2011, he was a Partner at Dua Associates, subsequent to which he had a series of inhouse stints wherein he headed legal teams at Bennett Coleman’s Brand Capital, IDFC Alternatives Limited and Global Infrastructure Partners India LLP. He joined the Firm in 2019.

Vinod graduated from the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore in 1998 and with a Masters in Corporate and Commercial Laws from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2003. He is admitted to practice law in India and in England and Wales.

Select Professional Experience

  • Advised Piramal Capital and Housing Finance Limited in connection with its investment in fintech start-up, ‘EarlySalary’.
  • Advised the Kotak Pre-IPO Opportunities Fund in connection with its investment of approximately Rs. 185 crores in Swiggy (Bundl Technologies Private Limited), one of India’s leading online food ordering and delivery platform. Swiggy is among the fastest growing unicorns in the Indian start-up space. Swiggy’s fund-raise is significant for the Indian economy as it echoes strong investor commitment in the Indian private equity market and Indian start-ups.
  • Advised the Kotak Pre-IPO Opportunities Fund in connection with its investment in Licious (Delightful Gourmet Private Limited). Licious is India's first D2C (Direct to Consumer) Unicorn, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Licious operates out of three processing centres in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Gurugram. It operates on a farm-to-fork model, owning the entire back-end supply chain and cold chain.
  • Advised the Kotak Pre-IPO Opportunities Fund in connection with its investment of approximately Rs. 200 Crores in Dailyhunt (Ver Se Innovation Private Limited) (an Indian content and news aggregator application based in Bangalore, India that provides local language content in 14 Indian languages from multiple content providers) which is on the verge of an initial public offering (IPO).
  • Advised the Kotak Pre-IPO Opportunities Fund in connection with its investment of approximately USD 15,000,000 Million (United States Dollars Fifteen Million) in M-League Pte Limited (“MPL”) which is on the verge of an initial public offering (IPO) in India. MPL is an online fantasy gaming platform which works with third-party developers and then publishes the game on the platform where users can participate in skill-based games including cricket, puzzles, chess, crosswords etc..
  • Advised the Kotak Pre-IPO Opportunities Fund in connection with its investment of approximately Rs. 188 crores in Pharmeasy (API Holdings Limited) (an Indian healthcare app and e-commerce platform for consumers involved in selling of online medicines, diagnostics, telehealth, online doctor consultation services etc). which is on the verge of an initial public offering (IPO).
  • Advised SBI Mutual Fund in connection with an investment, by way of a preferential allotment, of Rs. 150 crore in Tube Investments of India Limited, a listed public limited company which is part of the Murugappa Group.
  • Advised Kotak Investment Advisors Limited in their investment in Strata, a Bengaluru based real estate investment start-up, in their Series A fund-raising of $ 6 million.
  • Acted as the lead adviser to Alkemi Venture Partners when it invested in Arctern Healthcare Private Limited, which operates under the brand name ‘Meddo’.
  • Acted for Eyestem Research Private Limited, a Bengaluru based company in connection with its latest fund raising from Endiya Partners.
  • Advised Kotak India Growth Fund II, a venture capital fund registered with SEBI, Kotak India Private Equity Fund, incorporated in Mauritius and Kotak Investment Advisors Limited who sold their stake in Prolifics Corporation Private Limited to Sysquest Private Limited.
  • Advised Manch Technologies Private Limited, a SaaS-based zero-coding digital transformation platform, in their pre-Series A fund-raising of approximately $1.1 million led by Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund with participation from Pentathlon Ventures.

Awards & Recognition

  • The Legal 500 Asia-Pacific Rankings 2023 ‘Recommended Lawyer’ for Corporate and M&A.

Memberships

  • Bar Council of Maharashtra & Goa.
  • State Bar of California.
  • Admitted to the Law Society, England and Wales (Membership active).

Papers & Publications

21st Mar, 2023

SEBI`s proposal for providing exits from AIFs - A Critique

29th Sep, 2022

Cert-in’s six hour reporting rule for cyber security incidents -…

29th Aug, 2022

VALUATION OF COMPANIES - A LEGAL ANALYSIS

22nd Mar, 2022

TAX TREATMENT OF ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENT FUNDS AND THEIR INVESTORS -…

Our Offices

Mumbai

11, 1st Floor, Free Press House
215, Nariman Point
Mumbai – 400021

+91 22 67362222

Delhi

Express Building
9 – 10 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
Delhi – 110002

+91 11 23701284/5/7

 

155, ESC House, 2nd floor,
Okhla Industrial Estate, Phase 3,
New Delhi – 110020

+91 11 45062522

Bengaluru

68 Nandidurga Road
Jayamahal Extension
Bengaluru – 560046

+91 80 46462300

Kolkata

Binoy Bhavan
3rd Floor, 27B Camac Street
Kolkata – 700016

+91 33 40650155/56

DISCLAIMER

The rules of the Bar Council of India do not permit advocates to solicit work or advertise in any manner. This website has been created only for informational purposes and is not intended to constitute solicitation, invitation, advertisement or inducement of any sort whatsoever from us or any of our members to solicit any work in any manner. By clicking on 'Agree' below, you acknowledge and confirm the following:

a) there has been no solicitation, invitation, advertisement or inducement of any sort whatsoever from us or any of our members to solicit any work through this website;

b) you are desirous of obtaining further information about us on your own accord and for your use;

c) no information or material provided on this website is to be construed as a legal opinion and use of this website will not create any lawyer-client relationship;

d) while reasonable care has been taken in ensuring the accuracy of the contents of the website, Argus Partners shall not be responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of information provided in this website or for any error or omission in the website; and

e) in cases where the user has any legal issues, the user must seek independent legal advice.