Macfarlanes has advised UK technology start up Improbable on its $20 million fundraising from Andreessen Horowitz, the US venture capital firm that backed Twitter and Facebook.

Since it was founded three years ago, Improbable has developed ground breaking technology, enabling thousands of people to use the same, fully-integrated simulated world simultaneously, which can be applied across a host of different industry sectors, including gaming, defence, transportation and disease planning.

The investment is the latest sign of British technology companies gaining interest from high-profile US venture capital groups.

The Macfarlanes team was led by corporate and M&A partner Alex Edmondson with tax and employee options advice provided by partners James McCredie and Rob Collard respectively.

Patrick Timoney, head of strategy at Improbable, said: “Macfarlanes worked with us over an astonishingly quick time scale to bring one of the company’s most important deals to date from term sheet to signature, providing invaluable advice all the way from the commercial level down to the drafting. They struck the right balance of flexibility, in getting us to the deal we wanted, and firmness in ensuring we got the terms we needed.”

Alex Edmondson commented: “This is an important round of investment for Improbable, who have been a client of the firm since the company was founded, which places them at the forefront of the London technology market and provides them with the ability to continue the expansion of the business. We look forward to continuing to work with them in the future.”