Stephen Barak Rozen is a partner in APM & Co.’s High Tech and Venture Capital practice and chairs its Food-Tech and Ag-Tech practice, as well as its Israel Innovation Authority practice. With an extensive background, Mr. Rozen is instrumental in fostering the firm’s relationships with law firms around the world as Head of International Relationships.
Mr. Rozen’s expertise spans a wide range of legal areas, including buy and sell-side mergers and acquisitions, equity financing transactions, private equity and venture capital funds. As an American expat, he brings invaluable insights to clients navigating the Israeli market, adept at bridging cultural gaps and ensuring smooth transitions.
Mr. Rozen’s reputation is underscored by numerous accolades, including recognition as a Thomson Reuters Stand-out Lawyer for numerous years and being rated by IFLR 1000 as one of Israel’s leading lawyers in the field of mergers and acquisitions, particularly in the areas of investment management, pharmaceuticals and life sciences, and technology and telecommunications. Notably, he has also been recommended by The Legal 500 for his expertise in Hi-Tech and Start-Ups and received the prestigious “Client Choice” recognition in Fintech from Lexology.
Leading APM & Co.’s Israel Innovation Authority practice, Mr. Rozen offers unparalleled guidance on matters pertaining to the IIA’s benefit tracks, rules and regulations. He represents numerous entities operating under the IIA’s auspices and those vying for franchises under its umbrella.
Moreover, Mr. Rozen is a trusted advisor to high tech and bio-tech companies, guiding them through various transactions and day-to-day corporate affairs, including international commercial dealings, licensing arrangements, R&D collaborations, joint ventures and employment matters.
His experience extends to the formation of investment and technological innovation vehicles such as private equity and venture capital funds, including technological incubators and open innovation labs.
Mr. Rozen shares his expertise on Israel Innovation Authority matters with institutions like the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Open University.
Additionally, his prior experience includes formulating and drafting the military’s position on proposed legislation during his tenure from 2001 to 2006. Mr. Rozen currently serves as a Lieutenant Colonel in the reserves.
Significant transactions and positions Mr. Rozen has been involved in include:
- Representing The Nielsen Company and NielsenIQ in numerous mergers and acquisition, including eXelate, VisualDNA, vBrand, Retail Plus and ciValue.
- Representing Meridian Bioscience in its US$ 49 million acquisition of publicly traded Exalenz Bioscience and later in the financing of the acquisition of Meridian Bioscience by South Korean purchasers for over US$ 1.5 billion.
- Representing Boston Scientific in its US$ 210 million acquisition of publicly traded EndoChoice Holdings.
- Representing Paycor in its US$ 30 million (as reported in the press) acquisition of Talenya.
- Serving as Chief Legal Counsel for The Time Innovations (formerly Lab-One). The Time was named the “best incubator” three years in a row- for 2010, 2011 and 2012- by the Israeli Minister of Economy.
- Serving as legal counsel for numerous technological incubators and open innovation labs operating under the auspices of the Israel Innovation Authority, including Earth & Beyond Ventures (by Kyocera, Corning and others), Nielsen Innovate (by The Nielsen Company and NielsenIQ), MindUP (by IBM, Medtronic, Pitango and Rambam Medical Center), The Kitchen Hub (by the Strauss Group), FoodNxt (by IFF-Frutarom), ESIL (by Bazan Group, EDF Renewables and Johnson Matthey), Fresh Start (by Tempo, Tnuva, Finistere and OurCrowd), CanNegev (by Perrigo, BOL Pharma and OurCrowd), FinSec Lab (by Mastercard and Enel X), InfraLab (by Enel and the Shikun & Binui group), TerraLab Ventures, NGT3 and Renault-Nissan.
- Representing numerous international consortiums in their successful vying for a franchise to run an Israel Innovation Authority-supervised technological incubator and open innovation lab.
- Representing Gentex in its US$ 17 million (as reported in the press) acquisition of Guardian Optical.
- Representing the major shareholders of ChameleonX in its US$ 20 million (as reported in the press) acquisition by Akamai.
- Representing H&H Group, and its NewH2 corporate venture arm, in its equity investment in Meta Flow (Lumen).
- Representing QUALCOMM Ventures in its equity investments in MantisVision, Ravello Systems (later acquired by Oracle) and Tapingo.
- Representing SanDisk Corporation in its equity investment in Ravello Systems (later acquired by Oracle).
- Representing Javelin Networks in its acquisition by publicly traded Symantec.
- Representing Traffix in its US$ 135 million (as reported in the press) acquisition by publicly traded F5 Networks.
- Representing Mr. Avi Brenmiller, CEO of Israeli clean-tech Solel Solar Systems, in Ecofin’s US$ 105 million equity investment in Solel and later in multinational Siemens’ US$ 420 million acquisition of Solel.
- Representing the Israeli bio-tech company MediGuide in a multi-million dollar transaction with multinational Medtronic, involving collaborative development, licensing and an equity investment and later in its US$ 300 million acquisition by the multinational St. Jude Medical.
- Representing StageOne Ventures, an investor in Guardium, in International Business Machines’ (IBM) US$ 225.5 million (as reported in the press) acquisition of Guardium.
- Representing Magma Venture Partners and StageOne Ventures, investors in Trivnet, in Gemalto’s US$ 40 million (as reported in the press) acquisition of Trivnet.
- Representing Exanet’s temporary liquidator in the US$ 12 million sale of its assets to Dell.
- Representing Fortissimo Capital in the raising of its private equity Fortissimo Capital Fund II fund.
- Representing Vintage Venture Partners in the raising of its venture capital Vintage Ventures III and IV funds.
- Representing Vitalife Life Sciences Venture Capital in the raising of its venture capital SCP VitaLife II fund.
Joined the firm in 2006.
Admission:
- Israel Bar Association (2003).
Membership:
- Israeli Military Tribunals, Unrestricted Approval (2003).
Education:
- Bar Ilan University, LL.B., Law (Business Track) (2001)
- Bar Ilan University, LL.M., Law, Cum Laude (2008)
Academic Positions:
- Research Assistant, Prof. David Hahn (formerly the Administrator General and Official Receiver in the Israeli Ministry of Justice), Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization, Bar Ilan University (1999-2001)
Contributed to an article that Prof. Hahn published in Mishpatim 32
- “Entrepreneurship in Healthcare”, Lecturer, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (2016 thru 2018)
- “Venture Capital”, Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Hebrew University (2014 thru 2019)
- Lecturer, EIT Food Accelerator – Israel, Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (2018 thru 2023)
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