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Launching in the UAE? Start smart.
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This article explains the key funding
stages — with region-specific norms,
legal considerations, and tips.
stages — with region-specific norms,
legal considerations, and tips.
What to сall your funding round?
The startup law firm
for founders building tomorrow.
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Partner with a Startup lawyer from day one
We provide practical, business-minded legal support at every stage — from incorporation to Series B — to help startups scale smarter.
Seed&Scale is a tech-savvy legal consultancy for ambitious tech founders in the UAE and MENA.
Our Solutions
We don’t believe in the billable hour. We’ve curated the legal essentials every startup needs—and offer them at fixed, transparent fees.
Flat-Fee Services
Your startup’s legal partner—for a simple monthly fee. Beyond legal advice, a General Counsel helps shape overall strategy and navigate key matters—from incorporation to funding and IP.
General Counsel
Why founders love Seed&Scale
Predictable, transparent costs
Fast, responsive support
Investor-ready documentation
Local expertise
Simplified processes, minimal friction
A lawyer who truly understands your business
Tech-savvy, business-minded counsel
Digital-first workflows
Deep UAE market knowledge
Clean legal docs from the start
Ongoing support when you need it
Fixed fees, no surprises
What founders need
What we deliver
Co-Founder, Co-CEO, Gosu Academy
F. Javier Bernal
“It makes a huge difference having a lawyer I can message any time without thinking, ‘Is this worth the fee?’ GC advice is thoughtful, quick, and always on point."
Co-founder, CEO, Comfi.ai
Sanjar Samiev
“We don’t have an in-house legal team, but with General Counsel, we don’t feel the gap. It covers most of our needs and gives us actionable advice so we can keep our pace.”
What we do
Our core startup law services include: incorporation, funding, intellectual property, employment, contracts, mergers & acquisitions, and general counsel.
Raising with SAFEs, convertible notes, or equity? We draft all the docs, negotiate the terms, and prep you for smooth investor due diligence.
FUNDING
From trademarks to licensing, we help you protect what makes your startup valuable—especially in tech and digital spaces.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
We help you choose the right legal structure, set up your company, and structure founders' equity—so you're built for growth from day one.
INCORPORATION
We create and review the contracts you need—client, vendor, or partner—and give you templates that grow with your business.
CONTRACTS
We draft startup-friendly agreements for employees, contractors, and advisors, set up ESOPs, and help keep your team UAE-compliant.
EMPLOYMENT
Thinking about an exit or acquisition? We handle deal structuring, negotiations, SPAs, and everything in between—before and after closing.
MERGER AND ACQUISITION
A law firm that moves at your speed
After nearly a decade working in legal consulting and venture-focused family offices across Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, Ivan Chugunov saw how traditional law firms struggled to serve the unique needs of early-stage companies—especially in fast-moving industries like fintech, AI, and Web3.
High hourly rates, risk-averse approach, slow response times, and solutions built primarily for large corporations often stood in the way of real progress.
In 2024, Ivan founded Seed&Scale to solve exactly these problems. Built specifically for early-stage startups in the UAE, Seed&Scale offers transparent fixed-fee pricing, responsive support, and clear strategic and legal guidance tailored to founders' needs.
The firm moves at startup speed, giving founders the clarity and confidence to scale smarter from day one.
FAQs about working with a startup lawyer.
Yes really. The whole point of General Counsel is to be there when you need us. By removing the billable hour, we’ve made it frictionless for you to reach out to us on issues big and small. This completely changes the dynamic of the relationship from transactional to partnership.
We work smarter, not harder. Because we designed the firm specifically for entrepreneurs, from day one we’ve been relentlessly focused on the efficient delivery of quality legal services. We’ve invested in automation (and are exploring AI) to make our process quick, smooth and highly accurate.
From our experience, General Counsel covers about 90% of a startup’s legal needs. Although issues like regulation, taxation, international structuring and M&A are not included within the scope of General Counsel, everything listed above is included. When projects are out of scope, we often work with our General Counsel clients on a per project basis.
Contract review includes reviewing, editing and negotiating any contract that is 20 pages or less with any counterparty.
Startups need a General Counsel to provide expert legal guidance from day one. An experienced startup GC becomes a strategic advisor, getting to know the business to offer tailored advice. Over time, the GC builds valuable institutional knowledge that informs wise counsel as the company grows. Rather than scrambling to find legal help when needs arise, startups benefit enormously from having a startup General Counsel ready to steer them through the twists and turns in the road ahead. With a trusted legal partner, founders can focus on innovation while mitigating risk.