Antonios (Tony) Backos
About Antonios (Tony) Backos
I use my legal and business training to assist management teams and founders, especially in completing transformative corporate transactions and fundraisings. During the last five years: • provide structuring, legal and financial advice to founder and his affiliated companies with respect to the growth of their private equity/asset leasing fund; • advisor to founders of a global index comprised of leading publicly-traded companies pursuing decarbonization technologies; • served as advisor to prop-tech startup reinventing fractional ownership of second homes in France; • advised international venture capital firm in connection with its portfolio investments in the U.S.; • counsel to entrepreneur with respect to his various blockchain initiatives, including securities matters and formation & governance of DAOs/companies; • counsel to Forbes 30 under 30 entrepreneur in connection with his founder arrangements, investments and other commercial matters; • served as a mobile payment SaaS startup’s initial COO & GC and was responsible for naming/forming the company; creating its financial model and proof of concept; and revamping its pricing, operations & other company structures thereby enabling the successful on-boarding of employees and initial fundraising process; and • was part of team that created a London-based on-demand energy delivery startup and assisted with its formation & complex regulatory compliance issues and through to two successful multi-million GBP raises. I am a recovering deal junkie who has advised on unicorn+ size transactions across multiple jurisdictions. I recall fondly my past life as global law firm partner where I routinely counseled companies, their boards and other stakeholders on cutting-edge cross-border capital markets, PE/VC and M&A transactions as well as on-going public company reporting requirements and corporate governance/ESG matters. For example, I led successful SPAC and direct listings (even with complex concurrent redomiciliation & AIM-delisting) years before such deals became vogue. Serving executive roles in public/private companies and law firms is rewarding, but equally or more so has been my pro-bono work. I have been privileged to advise on the formations of art, theater & other non-profits and the restructuring of wildlife and similar charitable foundations. I also enjoy writing/presenting on various corporate/energy topics and teaching phenomenal students at ESCP Business School.