Carmelo Michael Gordian
Partner
Overview
Carmelo Gordian is a business attorney in Holland & Knight's Austin office. Mr. Gordian focuses his practice on venture capital and private equity transactions in the cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI), enterprise software, telecommunications, semiconductor, life sciences and energy sectors.
Mr. Gordian has represented emerging growth companies in transactions in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. He has acted as counsel – advising the companies, underwriters and significant shareholders – in more than 50 public offering transactions. He has also acted as company and investment counsel on several hundred private offerings, principally venture financings, throughout the past 30 years.
Mr. Gordian advises companies and boards of directors on corporate governance issues, as well as serves as counsel to special committees formed by boards of directors. He has an active practice representing general partners and limited partners of hedge funds, private equity funds, venture capital and real estate funds, ranging from several tens of millions of dollars to multibillion-dollar funds.
In addition to his legal practice, Mr. Gordian is often quoted in the press and is a frequent speaker and author on emerging growth, venture capital and initial public offerings (IPOs), among other topics.
Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Gordian was an attorney at a global law firm in its Austin office.
Representative Experience
- Represented a medical device company based in Austin in its $1.14 billion acquisition by a global medical technology leader
- Represented a cybersecurity company based in Austin in a Series Seed and Series A financing and acquisition by a digital identity security company based in Boston
- Represented a cybersecurity company based in Austin in a Series Seed financing and acquisition by a cybersecurity company offering a password management service
- Represented a healthcare technology services company based in Denver in its acquisition by a personalized health platform company
- Represented a New York-based global asset management firm in its acquisitions of multiple healthcare technology companies
- Represented a cybersecurity company based in Austin in its acquisition by a portfolio company of an American private equity firm
- Represented a special committee of the board of directors of an international oil field services company
- Represented a blank check company based in Pennsylvania in its $138 million initial public offering (IPO)
- Represented a medical device company based in Austin in its $86.25 million IPO, a $111.9 million follow-on/secondary offering and a $92 million follow-on offering
- Represented numerous U.S., Latin American and European companies and investors as counsel in venture capital financings in various verticals, including financial technology (FinTech), software, cybersecurity technology, social media technology, artificial intelligence (Al), digital entrepreneurship, electrical vehicles (EVs) and logistics optimization
- Represented a data management company based in Chile in its $6.3 million Series A financing
- Represented a cybersecurity company based in Spain in its $9.4 million Series A financing
- Represented a cybersecurity company based in Austin in its $3.9 million Series Seed financing
- Represented an electric truck company based in Sweden in its 37 million euros Series B preferred shares financing, 230 million euros Series C preferred shares financing and 60 million euros Series C-2 financing
- Represented a cybersecurity company based in Austin in its $6 million Series Seed financing and its $50 million Series A funding co-led by a corporate venture capital fund and a cybersecurity-focused venture capital firm, with participation from numerous other investors
- Represented an AI-based software company based in Norway in its $4.8 million Series Seed financing
- Represented a logistics company based in Chile in its $3.2 million Series A financing and convertible note financings
- Represented a cybersecurity company based in Austin in its $8 million Series Seed financings
- Represented a cybersecurity company based in Austin in its $6.8 million Series Seed financing and its $11 million Series A financing
- Represented an alternative energy company originally based in Argentina in its $5.64 million Series A financing
- Represented a software company based in Austin in its $4 million Series B financing and convertible note financings
- Represented an entertainment software company originally based in Ukraine in its $50 million Series A financing
- Represented a proprietary investment firm in its 1) $33 million investment in a privately held clinical-stage biotechnology company, 2) $2.4 million investment in a pharmacometric consultancy service company and 3) $12 million investment in a content optimization tool for mobile apps
- Represented a ChatGPT technology company with its various Series Seed financings
- Represented a hedge fund manager with its $3 million investment in an Israeli startup company developing solar geoengineering technology
- Represented various insurance, banking, technology, consumer product and other corporate investors in numerous venture capital investments and secondary stock acquisitions
Credentials
- Harvard Law School, J.D.
- Harvard University, B.A., Economics
- Texas
- International Accelerator, Board Member
- American Bar Association, Corporate Law Section
- Chambers USA – America's Leading Business Lawyers guide, Senior Statespeople: Technology – Corporate & Commercial – Texas, 2007-2025