+49 211 600 55-00 +49 151 55900053 +49 211 600 55-050 i.schuetz@heuking.de
+49 221 20 52-0 +49 221 20 52-1 i.schuetz@heuking.de
- Start-ups
- Limited Liability Company (GmbH) Law
- Employee participation
- Partnership law
- Private M&A
- Reorganisation [of group of companies]
- Venture Capital
Vita
- Admitted to the barsince 2021
- Education and former activities
- Orrick, Herrigton & Sutcliffe LLP 2021-2025
- Legal clerkship at the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf with stations at Hogan Lovells LLP and Linklaters LLP2018-2020
- Law studies at the University of Osnabrück2012-2018
Qualifications/current topics
Ilona Schütz is a Senior Associate at HEUKING’s Düsseldorf and Cologne offices. She advises start-ups, companies, and national and international investors on venture capital, private equity, and M&A transactions.
At the core of her practice is the comprehensive legal support of start-ups and investors across all stages of development: from incorporation through all financing rounds – from seed stage to later stage – to exit structures in the form of share and asset deals. She advises both companies and German and international investors – the latter particularly on their investments in the German market – combining transactional precision with a keen sense for the commercial needs of young start-ups.
In addition, she has extensive experience in advising on university spin-offs, corporate restructurings, and the design and implementation of employee participation programmes (such as ESOPs, VSOPs, and phantom equity models). Together with her clients, she develops scalable and future-oriented structures.
Beyond her focus on venture capital, Ilona Schütz regularly advises on traditional M&A and private equity transactions (sell-side and buy-side), on company sales in succession and special situations, as well as on joint venture constellations.
Mitgliedschaften
- International Bar Association (IBA)
Selected references*
- the shareholders of MBS Logistics Group, a global provider of integrated logistics services with 26 locations and over 450 employees, on the acquisition of the group by AD Ports Group (Noatum Logistics)
- Proxima Fusion, a Munich-based DeepTech start-up, on the conclusion of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Free State of Bavaria, the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), and RWE on the path to building the first commercial stellarator fusion power plant
- clarait, a Leipzig-based B2B SaaS start-up, on their EUR 1.5 million seed financing round led by TGFS Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen
- Co-reactive, a Düsseldorf-based DeepTech start-up, on their EUR 6.5 million seed financing round led by High-Tech Gründerfonds
- STS Ventures, a Cologne-based early-stage investor, on the financing round it led for the HR tech company Talent2Go
- Donnerstag.ai, a FinTech start-up, in its EUR 4.3 million Series Seed financing round
- cleverly edu, a Berlin-based EdTech start-up, on its acquisition of Complori (codary GmbH)
- Proxima Fusion, a start-up in the field of fusion energy, in its EUR 20 million Series Seed financing round and EUR 130 million Series A financing round
- Pruna AI, an AI start-up based in Munich and Paris, on its EUR 6 million Series Seed financing round
- ACCURE Battery Technologies, a deep tech start-up, on its EUR 8 million Series A and EUR 16 million Series B financing rounds with investors including Blue Bear Capital, Capnamic, and 42CAP
- GEMESYS, an AI start-up, in its EUR 8.6 million financing round with Amadeus APEX Technology Fund and Atlantic Labs
- United Manufacturing Hub, an open-source industrial IoT infrastructure platform, in its Series Seed financing round led by Freigeist
- BioThrust, an Aachen-based BioTech start-up, on their Freigeist-led pre-series seed financing round and the pre-seed extension financing round
- Voltfang, a sustainable energy start-up, in its EUR 5 million financing round
- Alstin Capital as lead investor in the EUR 15 million Series A financing round of Hessian logistics company ANCLA
- Energy Impact Partners on several investments, including as lead investor in the EUR 330 million Series C financing round of Grover and, together with GIC, in the EUR 100 million Series C financing round of Zolar
- Haniel on various investments, including – together with b2venture, Eurazeo, and eCAPITAL – in the EUR 215 million financing round of 1Komma5°, which made the company a unicorn
- Headline for its investment in the EUR 45 million financing round of hospitality start-up numa
- Blossom Capital as lead investor in the EUR 15.6 million Series A financing round of Superchat
- DyeMansion, a 3D printing finishing start-up, in its EUR 15 million financing round
- Coatue, a US investor, in its co-lead investment in N26's EUR 700 million Series E financing round
- Kenbi, a care tech start-up, on its EUR 23.5 million Series A financing round led by Endeavour Vision
- Skillz, a mobile gaming platform, on its EUR 50 million investment in Exit Games, developer of Photon, a leading technology for synchronous multiplayer games
- Coatue on its co-lead investment in Gorillas Technologies' Series C financing round of just under EUR 1 billion, together with Delivery Hero as co-lead investor
- Deel, a global payroll scale-up, on its acquisition of German AI start-up Zeitgold
* partly working for previous law firms.