Sandi Knox

SANDI KNOX is a founding lawyer of Sidley’s Palo Alto office and the Emerging Companies and Venture Capital practice, and leads the firm’s Corporate Venture Capital practice. She is also the Palo Alto office co-chair of SidleyWomen.

Sandi draws on over 25 years of practice in Silicon Valley, as well as experience as a global technology company general counsel, to advise emerging technology and life sciences companies, venture capital funds, and corporate venture capital arms of Fortune 100 companies and other strategic investors in technology and life sciences transactions, corporate governance, and executive compensation matters. She excels at taking a holistic, long-term view of clients’ strategic goals and translating them into creative and efficient financing and technology development transactions, while bridging gaps that can exist between Fortune 100 companies and their emerging growth technology partners, each of whom are critical to the other’s innovation objectives.  Sandi is a member of the 2025 Chambers USA Band 1 Nationwide-ranked Transportation: Aviation: Transactional team, and was noted as part of Sidley’s team named the winner of Financial Times’ 2021 “Innovation in Sustainability and ESG” award for its work helping aviation and airlines industry clients reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, she was named to The American Lawyer’s inaugural list of “West Trailblazers” in 2021. She is the chair of the ABA Private Equity and Venture Capital Corporate Venture Capital subcommittee, and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

“Sandi [has] “moved the needle” in the legal industry…for her role assisting large corporate clients in implementing their innovation agendas by collaborating with, and investing in emerging technology and life sciences companies.”
The American Lawyer, “West Trailblazers” Award 2021

Prior to rejoining Sidley in 2016, Sandi served as Vice President and General Counsel for DDN Storage, the world’s largest privately held provider of big data storage solutions to global companies with extreme data storage needs. At DDN, she was responsible for all of the company’s legal matters worldwide, including technology transactions, equity and debt financings, board and corporate governance matters, executive compensation and human resources matters, litigation, and manufacturing, trade, and export compliance matters relevant to hardware and software products and services sold to customers around the world. She brings to Sidley a deep understanding of the challenges global, fast-moving technology businesses face, and the need for practical, high-value advice from outside counsel.

Earlier in her career, Sandi was an associate at a renowned Palo Alto-headquartered law firm, where she represented a broad range of technology companies in venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, secondary securities transactions, and public company corporate governance and reporting matters. She also was previously in-house counsel with Electronics for Imaging, where she managed some of EFI’s most important OEM relationships with partners in Japan and Europe.

While in law school, she was a summer law clerk with the Environment and Natural Resources Division (Policy, Legislation and Special Litigation Section) of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she analyzed environmental legislation for the executive branch and assisted with briefing to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in litigation regarding the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) on behalf of the United States Trade Representative.

• United Airlines on its:
  • Investment in loyalty commerce media company Dfinitiv Inc.;
  • Investment in blended wing body aircraft company JetZero;
  • Investments in supersonic aerospace company Boom Supersonic;
  • Investment in speech-to-text AI company aiOla;
  • Investment in electrochemical catalyst company Twelve;
  • Investment in hydrogen storage and logistics company Verne;
  • Investment in limestone carbon mineralization carbon capture company Heirloom;
  • Investment in hydrogen production company Koloma;
  • Investment in sustainable aviation fuel company OXCCU;
  • Investment in innovative food production company Savor Foods;
  • Investment in green hydrogen company Electric Hydrogen;
  • Investment in ocean water carbon capture company Banyu Carbon;
  • Investment in algal sustainable aviation fuel company Viridos;
  • Investment in and commercial agreement with Dimensional Energy;
  • Investment in carbon capture technology company Svante;
  • Investment in urban air mobility provider Eve Air Mobility;
  • Strategic equity investment in sodium-ion battery manufacturer Natron Energy;
  • Collaboration with Houston-based biotech firm Cemvita Factory, in connection with Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, to commercialize the production of SAF using carbon dioxide and synthetic microbes;
  • Investment in ZeroAvia, a leading UK-headquartered hydrogen-electric aircraft developer; 
  • Investment with Honeywell in Alder Fuels, including the largest publicly announced sustainable aviation fuel agreement in aviation history;
  • Investment in electric aircraft startup Heart Aerospace along with Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Mesa Airlines, and conditional agreement to purchase 100 Heart Aerospace ES-19 aircraft;
  • Launch of United Airlines Ventures, United Airlines’ corporate venture capital fund;
  • Investments in Archer Aviation, an urban ‘air taxi’ company;
  • Intended multimillion-dollar investment in 1PointFive, Inc. as part of United’s pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 100% by 2050;
  • Collaboration with and strategic equity investment in CLEAR; and
  • Strategic equity investment in Journera.
• GIC Pte. Ltd. in its:
  • Investment in wealth management fintech firm Altruist’s Series F Preferred Stock financing;
  • Investments in tech-enabled Medicare Advantage company Devoted Health’s Series D and Series E Preferred Stock financings;
  • Investment in multi-day energy storage company Form Energy’s US$450 million Series E Preferred Stock financing;
  • Series C investment in Solugen, which focuses on decarbonizing the chemicals industry;
  • Pre-IAC spinout equity investment in Vimeo (Nasdaq: VMEO), a professional video-sharing platform company;
  • Series D investment in Zymergen (Nasdaq: ZY), a company engaged in the design, development, and commercialization of bio-based breakthrough products, at industrial scale, where microorganisms create the biomolecules that are the key ingredients in those products;
  • Investment in Apeel Sciences, an innovative food waste reduction company; and
  • Series D investment in Pagaya, an AI-driven asset management company.
• WestCap Group in its investments in Dragos, Siepe, Treasury4, Peek Travel, Ledger Investing, Sharegain, Flyr, Found Health, Human Security, and Hunt Club.
• A publicly traded medical device company in its investment in a privately held innovative medical device company.
• A family office in its investment in Databricks.
• A global aerospace supplier in an investment in an innovative aviation company.
• A global metals producer in the formation of its corporate venture capital entity, and investments in a number of venture-backed companies.
• A global automotive supplier in several investments in innovative venture-backed companies.
• A global spirits producer in investments in its corporate venture capital investments.
• Flex Ltd. (Nasdaq: FLEX), an American multinational manufacturing company domiciled in Singapore, in its sale of US$500 million of convertible preferred equity in Nextracker Inc. (Nasdaq: NXT) to TPG Rise Climate in February 2022 prior to its subsequent spinout.
• A National Basketball Association team in its corporate venture capital investment in a sports technology company.
• A media company in its corporate venture capital investment in a privately held venture.
• A global apparel retailer in its investment in and collaboration with a privately held software company.
• IMAX Corporation (NYSE: IMAX) in the formation of IMAX AI, a joint venture with Maximus, a next-generation visual effects company, to advance AI-based solutions for Ultra-High Definition (UHD) 4K enhancement across smart devices, new and library content, and real-time enhancement of live entertainment and sports.
• Supply chain management software company o9 in its US$100 million investment from KKR & Co., Inc.
• Kalderos, Inc., a SaaS drug discount management platform company, in its US$28 million Series B funding from Bain Capital Ventures and Mercato Partners.
• Audio Up Inc., a podcast production studio and network, in its sale of Series A Preferred Stock to a group of investors led by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) Inc.
• GlaxoSmithKline in its collaboration with and equity investment in Lyell Immunopharma, a San Francisco biotechnology company, to develop new technologies to improve cell therapies for cancer patients.
• Synchrony Financial in numerous strategic investments in emerging technology companies.
• Cadence Design Systems, Inc., in its investment in Green Hills Software.
• Hyatt Hotels in its strategic investment in Oasis Luxury Rentals.
• A cryptocurrency-focused venture capital fund in numerous investments in digital asset and blockchain technology companies.
• AptarGroup, Inc. in several strategic investments in innovative pharmaceutical dispensing and packaging technology companies.
• Acrisure in its recapitalization and partial buyout by ABRY Partners of Genstar’s position in Acrisure.
• Tricida, Inc. in its US$55 million Series C Financing.
• Monsanto Growth Ventures in its investment in New Leaf Symbiotics’ Series C Financing.

• Chair, Corporate Venture Capital Subcommittee of the Private Equity and Venture Capital Committee of the Business Section of the American Bar Association