Kenny Walker-Durrant

Kenny Walker-Durrant

Partner
Kenny Walker-Durrant
London
+44 (0)20 7447 4291

Kenny Walker-Durrant is a partner in Goodwin’s Technology and Life Sciences groups, specializing in transactions M&A, private equity and venture capital financings. Kenny advises clients on a broad range of corporate matters, with a particular focus on emerging growth companies and venture capital investors in the life sciences, healthcare, and technology sectors. Kenny advises clients through every stage of the corporate life cycle.

Kenny has been recognised as a Next Generation Partner for Venture Capital by the Legal 500 UK 2025. Kenny is commended for his ‘real talent with incredible technical skills on the tech and life sciences sectors’ and “his great market knowledge, fast and pragmatic advice and turnaround on documents”.

Experience

Kenny’s representative experience includes:

Venture Capital Financings

  • advised Myricx Bio, a biotech company developing a first in class of ADC platform based on NMT inhibition to treat cancer, on its £90 million Series A financing, co-led by Novo Holdings and Abingworth
  • advised a syndicate of investors led by Forbion on the $170 million Series B investment into Beacon Therapeutics, an ophthalmic gene therapy company focused on restoring the vision in patients with rare and prevalent retinal diseases 
  • advised a syndicate of investors led by EQT Life Sciences and Sectoral Asset Management on the $42 million Series D investment into Phagenesis, a medical device company specialising in the treatment of swallowing disorders
  • advised Forbion Growth Opportunities Fund and Sofinnova Investments as lead investors on the $148 million Series C investment into Gyroscope Therapeutics, a clinical-stage gene therapy company developing gene therapy targeting vision loss
  • advised Jeito Capital as lead investor on the $92 million Series C financing of Pulmocide, a biopharmaceutical company developing inhaled treatments for respiratory diseases
  • advised Andera Partners and LSP on the £65 million Series B investment into Artios Pharma, a biotech company pioneering DDR-based cancer therapies
  • advised Achilles Therapeutics, a biopharma company developing personalised T cell therapies for solid tumours, on its £100 million Series B financing led by RA Capital and its £52.7 million Series C financing led by OrbiMed, Boxer Capital of Tavistock Group, and other prominent US-based investors
  • advised Gilde Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente Ventures and Morningside Ventures on the $75 million Series C financing of Big Health, a digital mental health care provider 
  • advised Quanta Dialysis Technologies, a medtech company developing a personal haemodialysis system (SC+), on its $48 million Series C funding financing led by a Swiss private family office with participation from btov Partners, Wellington Partners and Seroba Life Sciences
  • advised Bicycle Therapeutics, a biopharma company developing “Bicycles”, on its £40 million Series B financing, led by Vertex* and on its $27.9 million Series B2 financing, led by Tybourne

M&A

  • advised Alys Pharmaceuticals on the acquisition of six biotech companies all with dermatology programs backed with $100 million in financing  
  • advised Centessa Pharmaceuticals on the acquisition of ten biotech companies and its concurrent $250 million Series A financing 
  • advised Ducentis Biotherapeutics, a biotech company developing therapies for inflammation and autoimmune diseases, on its acquisition by Nasdaq listed Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc. for up to $400 million
  • advised DJS Antibodies, a biotech company focused on GPCR targeting antibody medicines, on its acquisition by AbbVie
  • advised ReViral Limited, a clinical-stage biopharma company developing antiviral therapeutics, with an initial focus on treating respiratory syncytial virus, on its acquisition by Pfizer for total consideration of up to $525 million
  • advised Enterprise Therapeutics on the demerger and sale of its TMEM16A potentiator portfolio to Roche for upfront consideration of £75 million and potential milestone payments (having also advised the lead investors on its series B investment)
  • advised Prexton Therapeutics, a biotech company developing foliglurax for the symptomatic treatment of Parkinson’s disease and dyskinesia (including Levodopa Induced Dyskinesia), on its acquisition by H. Lundbeck A/S for up to €905 million*
  • advised Stat-Dx, a diagnostics company creating fully integrated molecular diagnostics, on its acquisition by QIAGEN for up to $191 million*
  • advised Ziarco Group, a biotech company developing  treatments in dermatology, on its acquisition by Novartis*
  • advised XO1, a biotech company developing Ichorcumab, a novel anticoagulant to treat Thrombosis, on its acquisition by Janssen Pharmaceuticals*

IPOs

*Denotes experience prior to joining Goodwin.

Venture Capital Financings

  • advised Matillion, a cloud-native data integration and transformation platform, on its $150 million Series E financing led by General Atlantic 
  • advised Y Combinator as lead investor on the £113 million Series F investment and its participation in the subsequent £60m Series G investment into Monzo Bank, a UK based digital bank
  • advised DST Global and General Catalyst on the $150 million Series C investment into Zego, a motor insurtech company
  • advised Cognitive Credit, a software company providing credit investors with specialist data and analytics, on its $10 million Series B round led by ETFS Capital 
  • advised OMERS Ventures Europe on the €18.5 million Series B investment into FirstVet, a telemedicine provider for pets
  • advised EQT on the £12 million Series A investment into Peanut App, a female social network platform
  • advised Grip, a market engagement platform, on its $13 million Series A financing led by Kennet Partners
  • advised Index Ventures on the $11.5 million Series A investment into Birdie, a caretech platform reinventing home care
  • advised Lakestar, a European venture capital firm that invests from seed to growth in the tech sector, on multiple investments into UK tech companies
  • advised Cherry Ventures, a European early-stage venture firm in the tech sector, on multiple early-stage investments into UK tech companies

M&A

  • advised Sportpursuit, an online sports product private sales platform, on its majority sale to BD-Capital
  • advised Fixflo (Tactile), a provider of property repairs and maintenance software, on its acquisition by Aareon AG
  • advised Symprove, a probiotics manufacturer, on its majority sale to BD-Capital
  • advised Profile Pensions, a digital pension adviser, on its acquisition by Moneyfarm
  • advised Capital Z Partners on its acquisition of Prestige Insurance (the largest privately owned insurance broker and managing general agent in Northern Ireland)
  • advised Captify, a search intelligence platform, on its acquisition by SFW Capital Partners
  • advised Weezy, an online on-demand grocery delivery platform, on its acquisition by Getir
  • advised Springer Nature on its acquisition of the British Journal of Cancer publishing platform from Cancer Research UK

*Denotes experience prior to joining Goodwin.

Credentials

Education

Legal Practice Course2013

The University of Law London

LLM2012

Kings College London University

LLB2011

Kings College London University

Admissions

Bars

  • England and Wales