MoFo Scale Up
“Successfully representing clients in various stages of business through their sophisticated cross-border financings, joint ventures, mergers, and acquisitions is highly rewarding.
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Thomas Chou is the managing partner of Morrison Foerster’s Los Angeles office. For over a quarter century, Thomas has successfully advised on leading cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and private equity and venture capital financings, primarily in the U.S. and across Asia. His clients include industry-leading emerging growth companies and private equity, venture capital, sovereign wealth, corporate venture, and family office investors. His broad industry coverage includes biopharma, MedTech, and digital health; mobile, gaming, and entertainment; material science and semiconductors (equipment and design); Deeptech/AI; Fintech (payments, remittances, and digital assets); PropTech; FoodTech; health and wellness; and consumer products and retail. Thomas is a proud and active member of the board of directors of the Morrison & Foerster Foundation and the Starlight Children’s Foundation.
Clients and outside ranking organizations routinely cite Thomas’ accomplishments:
Thomas is “a strong advocate for his client, offering strategic and actionable advice, evaluating and clearly prioritizing the key issues in complex situations and proactively anticipating concerns from counterparties in negotiations."
“Thomas Chou is excellent in understanding the industry and leads the team in working on the same. He is very responsive and works 24 hours responding to the clients.”
“Thomas has significant experience handling complex cross–border transactions across the Asia–Pacific region. His counsel is frequently sought by global technology corporations to advise on their investments in the region. He also commands considerable respect from private equity clients.”
His clients pinpoint his “decades of venture capital experience both in the United States and in Asia,” with one noting: “He is patient, attentive to details and someone who has clearly conquered many battlefields.”
Thomas is particularly praised for his communications skills, with clients saying, “Any issues we had he would always provide a solution. He is not only interpreting regulations, but he is also commercially savvy.”
Experience
€66.5 million equity investment in BenevolentAI, a leading UK-based clinical-stage AI drug discovery company.
US$50 million financing round, with participation from existing shareholders, for Ceribell, a California-based company that develops a rapid response electroencephalography (EEG) system.
US$60 million Series F financing of Aerin Medical Inc., a medical technology company providing non-invasive solutions for the treatment of chronic nasal conditions.
US$62 million Series D financing of Mission Bio, Inc., a life sciences tools company focused on single-cell genomics, proteomics and multi-omics solutions for oncology study and cell and gene therapy development.
$101 million Series B financing of Endeavor BioMedicines, a clinical-stage biotechnology company targeting the core drivers of terminal diseases including oncology and fibrosis.
$200 million Series C investment of Transcarent, a new and different health and care experience company for employees of self-insured employers and their families.
an oversubscribed US$265 million Series B financing of Sonoma Biotherapeutics, a U.S.-based life sciences company developing treatments for autoimmune and degenerative disease.
US$108 million investment in Mainstay Medical Holdings plc, a global medical device company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.
US$68M growth equity investment round with participation from Northpond Ventures and existing investors to expand delivery of real-world evidence through Syapse’s Learning Health Network fund.
$25 million investment and the follow-on US$110 million Series D financing of Vida Health, Inc., a U.S.-based leading virtual care platform.
$60 million equity investment and the follow-on US$81 million equity investment in Rapid Micro Biosystems, Inc., a U.S.-based medical product manufacturer.
US$320 million PIPE investment into Arya Sciences Acquisition Corp II (NASD: ARYBU), a SPAC, for its definitive business combination with Cerevel Therapeutics, Inc., a company dedicated to neuroscience diseases treatment.
US$300 million equity financing in Grail, Inc., a company developing a blood test to detect cancer before symptoms appear.
US$215 million investment in ATEA Pharmaceutical, Inc., a U.S.-based biopharmaceutical company engaged in the acquisition, discovery, and development of novel antiviral therapeutics
US$117.4 million investment in Hua Medicine, a China-based clinical-stage drug development company.
US$100 million investment in Goldfinch Biopharma, a U.S.-based clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing precision medicines for the treatment of kidney diseases.
US$85 million investment in Imperative Care, a Silicon Valley-based startup focused on stroke care solutions.
US$65 million equity financing in 2019 and subsequent $66 million financing in 2020 in PulmonX, a U.S.-based medical technology company specializing in lung cancer.
$27 million equity investment in Venclose, Inc., a U.S.-based medical technology company.
US$155 million private placement of shares in TESARO, Inc. (acquired by GSK), a Boston-based oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company that provides transformative cancer therapies.
Taiwan-based The News Lens Co., Ltd. (TNL) in its merger with Japan-based Mediagene Inc. and its proposed de-SPAC with Blue Ocean Acquisition Corporation and listing on NASDAQ.
Six Waves Inc. in its US$201 million acquisition by Stillfront Group AB (publ), a Sweden-based powerhouse of gaming studios listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.
Alpha Fintech in its acquisition by PPRO, a leading global provider of local payments infrastructure, powering growth for payment service providers.
LeapXpert in its US$8 million Series A financing.
Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China Ltd. in its capital and strategic alliance with Shionogi & Co., Ltd. with a total value of US$780 million.
Represented SoftBank in its US$9.6 billion investment in Xiaoju Kuaizhi Inc. (DiDi), China’s leading ride–hailing and mobile transportation platform.
Represented Trusted Doctors (Xingren) in its strategic merger agreement with Tencent Doctorwork. The newly formed venture, which is named Tencent Trusted Doctors, will offer an ecosystem of both online and offline services devoted to leveraging Internet technology to provide high–quality and accessible healthcare service to customers all over the country.
Represented Happiness Capital as one of the investors in the $125 million Series C financing in Ÿnsect, French ag–tech innovator that specializes in breeding insects and transforming them into premium ingredients for fish feed, pet food, and organic plant fertilizers.
Represented CLSA and a consortium of investors in relation to the Series C round investment into the ACT Genomics Group. Based in Taiwan, and with operations across Asia (Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, PRC), ACT Genomics provides genomic profiling assays, molecular information to physicians and biopharmaceutical clients, and cancer treatment plans, cancer relapse, and drug resistance monitoring, as well as cancer risk assessment and immunotherapy evaluation.