Justin D. Young

Justin D. Young

Partner, Emerging and High Growth Companies

Contact Information

jyoung@osler.com

tel: 778.785.2748

Office

Vancouver

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Areas of Expertise

Bar Admission

British Columbia, 2010

Ontario, 2003

Education

  • McGill University, B.A. (Distinction)
  • University of Toronto, J.D. (Honours)

Language(s)

English

Justin Young is a Partner in Osler’s Emerging and High Growth Companies practice group. His practice focuses on venture financing, mergers and acquisitions and corporate commercial matters for private technology companies. He has acted for hundreds of technology clients across Canada and in the US, from start-ups to listed public companies, as well as many of the leading Canadian and US venture funds.

Justin has acted extensively for entrepreneurs, start-ups and venture-backed technology companies, from start-up through their growth trajectory, as well as venture capital funds, private equity and strategic and angel investors, including on hundreds of venture capital and other private financings raising over $1 Billion since 2005, as well as on IPOs and other public offerings for technology companies.

Justin also frequently advises clients on M&A transactions with a particular focus on the purchase or sale of private Canadian technology companies.  He has represented offerors and targets in friendly and unsolicited takeover bids, arrangements, asset sales, amalgamations and share sale transactions, with transaction values ranging from $2 million to $17 billion. Justin also regularly advises clients on various commercial and strategic matters, including corporate governance, company formation, shareholder arrangements, licensing, SaaS, joint ventures and other commercial relationships.

Justin has been involved as a legal partner from Osler for CDL West, a Board Member of Open Angel Vancouver and VIATEC and is counsel to the BC CEO Cleantech Alliance. Justin is named as one of The Best Lawyers in Canada, in the areas of Corporate Law and Technology Law, is recognized by Lexpert in Technology Transactions and is one of the few individually ranked lawyers for Startups & Emerging Companies by Chambers Canada.

  • MarineLabs Data Systems Inc.

    MarineLabs in its closing of a $4.5 million seed funding round

  • Inverted AI

    Inverted AI in its closing of a $5.3 million seed funding round

  • BOXX Insurance

    BOXX Insurance in its raising of US$14.4 million in a Series B funding round

  • EVOK Innovations Inc. and BDC Capital Inc.

    Evok Innovations Inc. and BDC Capital’s Climate Tech Fund in connection with Summit Nanotech Corporation’s US$50 million Series A2 funding

  • Vendasta Technologies Inc.

    Vendasta in its acquisition of Broadly

  • BOXX Insurance

    BOXX Insurance in its acquisition of Templarbit

  • Vendasta Technologies

    Vendasta in its acquisition of Yesware

  • Andgo Systems

    Andgo Systems in its $5.6 million Series A financing round

  • Canalyst

    Canalyst in its acquisition by Tegus

  • Autozen

    Autozen in its $5.1 million seed financing

  • Rhino Ventures

    Rhino Ventures as lead investor in Contact’s £3 million seed financing

  • BOXX Insurance

    BOXX Insurance in its raising of US$10.1 million in Series A funding

  • Certn

    Certn in its US$50 million Series B financing round

  • Certn

    Certn in its acquisition of Credence

  • Ionomr Innovations Inc.

    Ionomr Innovations in its US$15 million Series A Financing

  • Vendasta

    Vendasta in its acquisition of MatchCraft

  • Domain7 Solutions

    Domain7 Solutions in connection with Civil Space’s acquisition by Zencity

  • Canalyst

    Canalyst in its US$70 million Series C financing round

  • Rhino Ventures

    Rhino Ventures as lead investor in Side Door’s US$3 million seed round

  • Thinkific Labs Inc.

    The Underwriters in Thinkific’s $184 million IPO

  • Beanworks

    Beanworks in its $104 million acquisition by Quadient

  • Corporate Finance Institute

    Corporate Finance Institute in its acquisition of Macabacus

  • HYAS

    HYAS in its $20 million Series B financing round

  • Echosec Systems

    Echosec Systems in its acquisition by The Tusker Fund

  • Rhino Ventures

    Rhino Ventures in Thinkific’s $22 million growth financing

    • Echosec in its acquisition by Tusker Fund

    Snapclarity in its acquisition by CloudMD

    Aspect Biosystems in its $26M Series A

    Canalyst in its $20M Series B Financing

    Certn in its $37.3M Series A Financing

    Certn in its $6.1M Seed Financing

    Two Hat in its $7.5M Financing


    SELECTED REPRESENTATION

    • VFF in various seed investments including its $2 million financing of Pressboard Media and its $3M million financing of Grow Financial as well as its investments in Tutela, Edvisor and ThinkCX
    • Pallasite Ventures in various seed investments including as lead investor in financings of Ecoation and EZ-Robot
    • Pangaea Ventures in its financings of Aeponyx, Redlen and Airbone International.
    • Mobidia in its acquisition by App Annie
    • Aspect Biosystems in its seed and institutional financings
    • Data Nerds in its $3 million Series A financing
    • EVOK Innovations in its investments in Osprey Informatics, Rotoliptic Technologies and Ekona
    • M12 in its investments in Element.ai and HYAS Infosec
    • Regenurex in its acquisition by Pond Technologies
    • Vanedge Capital Partners in several Seed, Series A, Series B and follow-on financings, including its financing of Plotly Technologies and of Privacy Analytics and in the disposition of Playnomics to a strategic acquirer
    • TwoHat Security in its Series Seed financing
    • Aimsio in its $10 million Series A financing led by STRAIT Capital Corp
    • Aida Software in its acquisition by Vision Critical
    • NCSoft in its investment in TGS
    • Pique Ventures in various Series Seed financings of early stage technology companies
    • PrinterWorks in its acquisition by WBM
    • Control Mobile in its $1.5 million Series Seed financing
       

    OTHER MATTERS

    • Canadian aerospace company in the sale of its U.S. subsidiary and its sale to a Canadian acquirer
    • Clean technology company in its bridge loan and in its $5 million Series A financing
    • Junior mining company in its acquisition of Canadian uranium assets from a Canadian TSX-listed vendor
    • Large multinational energy company in its $200 million disposition of an Alberta-based joint venture manufacturing asset, and the sale of a business line in British Columbia
    • Leading Canadian private equity fund in its acquisition of an Ontario-based food products manufacturing company
    • Management shareholder of a private equity-backed medical device company in its sale to a large U.S. private equity fund
    • Shareholders of an owner management business selling its construction and hospitality assets to a large publicly listed U.S. acquirer
    • Toronto-based early stage investment fund in its $1 million convertible note seed financing of a Vancouver-based technology company
    • Toronto-based early stage lead angel investor in a convertible debenture seed financing of a Waterloo-based technology company
    • Venture-backed company based in Toronto in its acquisition of various related service businesses
  • Find More

  • Chambers Canada: Canada’s Leading Lawyers for Business: Recognized in Startups and Emerging Companies
  • The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory: Recognized in Technology Transactions; Corporate Mid-Market; Corporate Commercial Law
  • Best Lawyers in Canada: Recognized in Corporate Law; FinTech Practice; Mergers and Acquisitions Law; Technology Law; Venture Capital Law

  • BC Tech Association, Board of Directors
  • Victoria Advanced Technology Council (VIATEC), Board of Directors
  • Open Angel Vancouver, Board Member
  • North Shore Girls Soccer Club, Volunteer Coach

  • Law Society of Ontario
  • Law Society of British Columbia

  • UBC Sauder School of Business, Guest Lecturer on Venture Finance
  • Pacific Venture Capital Competition, Judge (2013, 2014 and 2015)
  • Plug and Play Canada, Selection Committee (2013, 2014)