Few companies reshape an industry category from the ground up. Avantia Law did exactly that, which makes the acquisition by Carta such a significant moment for the future of private market infrastructure.

A huge congratulations to James Sutton, the larger Avantia team and their investors Hoxton Ventures and Smedvig Capital on this exciting milestone. We are honoured to have been a part of their journey from the beginning.

Together with Hussein Kanji (Hoxton Ventures) and Joe Knowles (Smedvig Capital), we established a strong relationship with James Sutton when Avantia was freshly spun out of the Oxford AI Lab and supported the company through several important leadership hires during key stages of growth.

Nick Fairclough, Managing Partner led the appointment of Hannah Thompson as Avantia Law’s Chief Operating Officer, who went on to work and partner closely with James to manage the day-to-day scaling of the company. Following this, Nick led two more appointments: Paul Gaskell as Chief Technology Officer and Rebecca Luo as VP Finance.

Working closely with James and the broader leadership team, Paul helped provide strategic direction across Avantia’s technical organisation while fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and technical excellence - critical foundations for scaling an AI-native business in a highly complex and regulated environment. Rebecca’s appointment also marked the professionalisation of the finance function as the company entered its next phase of scale and maturity.

From the beginning, Avantia stood out for its ambition to rethink legal infrastructure from first principles, building an AI-native platform purpose-built for the complexity of private market transactions. Meanwhile, New York and San Francisco-based Carta has become one of the defining infrastructure platforms for private capital markets, powering equity management, fund administration, and ownership infrastructure for thousands of companies and investors globally. 

Their acquisition reflects a broader shift in private markets, where AI-native workflows are becoming foundational to transactions, compliance, and legal operations. We congratulate Henry Ward, CEO of Carta, and the larger Carta leadership team on the launch of Carta Law.

About Faraday Partners

Faraday Partners is a global executive search firm supporting the most valuable companies in tech and their investors from early conviction to industry impact. We specialise in senior leadership appointments across all facets of leadership, helping organisations secure transformative leaders who scale businesses, drive innovation, and create long-term enterprise value.