Sorainen Estonia has advised BoostMe, a manufacturer of superfood blends, on its successful raising of approximately EUR 220,000 through the Funderbeam crowdfunding platform.
According to Sorainen, the company plans to expand to the Irish market, and its current short-term goal is to launch eight new products in the Estonian market.
The Sorainen team consisted of Partner Piret Jesse and Associate Mirell Prosa.
Cobalt has advised Karma Ventures on a series A round investment in Estonia’s Xolo. Eversheds Sutherland Ots & Co advised Xolo on the deal.
Vendep Capital in Finland and Leap Ventures in France also participated in the round.
Xolo, which operated before as LeapIN Business Services OU, helps users set up independent businesses and operate them virtually in Europe. The company takes care of business banking, accounting, and compliance. According to Cobalt, “Xolo helps remove the barriers for people looking to start a one-person business by providing a simple-to-use platform and advisory service which helps take care of financial and legal factors associated with setting up a business.” Xolo is part of the Estonian e-Residency program that enables new micro-businesses to enter the market.
With USD 6.8 million financing secured, Xolo, formerly known as LeapIN, will now offer two products: Xolo Go and Xolo Leap. Xolo Go will allow users to launch a freelancing business in minutes as a virtual company, with a dedicated bank account, invoicing, expense management, and payouts. Xolo Leap allows users to launch an EU-registered company with full banking service, accounting, and tax compliance.
Vendep Capital invests primarily in Finnish early-stage B2B software companies.
Leap Ventures is a tech-focused entrepreneur-led venture capital firm that operates in MENA and Europe.
Karma Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm, specialized in late seed and A round investments in European tech startups.
Cobalt’s team consisted of Partner Kristel Raidla-Talur, Senior Associate Greete-Kristiine Kuru, and Associate Sven Bottcher.
The Eversheds Sutherland Ots & Co team was led by Partner Maivi Ots and assisted by Legal Counsel Marten Amjarv.
Cobalt has previously advised Karma Ventures on investments in Infermedica (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on June 17, 2019), Realeyes (as reported on May 29, 2018), AppGyver, Plumbr, SpectX, Adaptive Simulations, Minut, Inc., Sonarworks, CGTrader, and MeetFrank.
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TGS Baltic has advised early-stage venture capital firm Creandum on its investment into the Tallinn-based startup Klaus (formerly Qualitista). The Tark law firm advised Klaus.
Klaus is an Estonian company that produces a conversation review and quality assurance platform for customer service teams.
The TGS Baltic team included Partner Kadri Kallas and Junior Counsel Mirko Kikkamagi.
The Tark team included Partners Hannes Kuun and Marit Savi and Associate Taavi Koiv.
Nove has advised Futurma OU on its sale of 100% shareholding in Mercurio OU to OneMed OU in Estonia. PwC Legal advised OneMed on the acquisition.
Since 2011 Mercurio has been operating in the Baltics mainly as a distributor of ResMed sleep apnea equipment and accessories. The company manages medical data systems and the medical devices web store Meditsiiniseadmed.ee. Mercurio is a Baltic partner to Nox Medical, a developer and manufacturer of respiratory diagnosis devices, and to Nonin, a developer and manufacturer of pulse oximetry equipment.
OneMed is a medical products distributor that is headquartered in Sweden with offices in 12 countries. The Estonian office of OneMed started its operations in 1993.
The Nove team consisted of Partner Urmas Volens and Lawyer Triin Tiru.
The PwC team was led by Attorney-at-Law Indrek Ergma and included Senior Associates Imbi Jurgen and Karin Marosov and Associates Maris Alt and Erik Salur.
Mari Matjus has been promoted from Associate Partner to Partner at the Nove law firm in Estonia.
Matjus, who manages Nove’s Medical Law, Data Protection, and Competition Law practice groups, began her career with five and a half years at Sorainen before joining Jesse & Kalaus in September 2015. She moved to Nove in spring of last year (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on May 21, 2018). The firm describes her as “a young generation partner who has built a career in several law firms, holds a Master’s degree in law from the University of Oxford and has trained hundreds of young Estonian lawyers in competition law at the Law Faculty of Tartu University.”
“It is a pleasure to join the partnership of a law firm which holds true to values similar to mine,” Matjus commented. “Teamwork, integrity and sharp client focus is crucial.”
“The promotion of Matjus to Nove partnership reconfirms that Mari’s integration into the Nove team has been smooth and that Nove is a rapidly-growing law firm open to outstanding specialists in their respective fields of law who act in line with our values and fulfill other criteria,” commented Urmas Volens, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of the firm.
Ellex Raidla has advised ISS on the sale of its Eesti AS subsidiary to private investors Triinu Reinold, Ulo Kallas, Roberto de Silvestri, and Elio Cravero.
All four buyers are connected with the Colonna real estate company.
According to Ellex, the new owners will support the current ISS Eesti management and “their goal is to further increase the company’s trust and quality in the domestic market.”
ISS is an international real estate maintenance group. For the time being ISS Eesti will continue acting under its current name, although a new name is expected to be chosen soon.
The Ellex Raidla team was led by Partner Sven Papp and included Senior Associates Gerda Liik, Martin Maesalu, and Dmitri Rozenblat, and Lawyer Kevin Gerretz.
Editor’s Note: After this article was published CEE Legal Matters learned that PwC Legal advised the buyers on the deal. The PwC team consisted of Senior Associates Imbi Jurgen, Karin Marosov, and Indrek Ergma and Associates Liisa Levandi, Carel Kivimaa, Jana Tudelep, and Erik Salur.
Pohla & Hallmagi has advised Norwegian Karmsund Group on the EUR 7 million acquisition of an office and warehouse block near the Tallinn Airport from local real estate developer Waiper Invest OU.
According to Pohla & Hallmagi, the property has “great potential as the area of the plot totals 30,000 square meters and it sides the take-off and landing area of the only international airport in the region.”
The Pohla & Hallmagi team consisted of Partner Juri Ploom and Lawyers Risto Sidok and Madli Astok.
According to Alterna Partner Annika Vait, on July 1, 2019, Estonia enacted more than 25 legal acts, “changing the current legislation.”
One of the biggest of the changes likely to impact the business sector, Vait says, involves the submission of e-invoices to public entities. “The state wants to have one big system for getting invoices and came up with a technical solution to collect e-invoices through one system,” she says. The new system will require a period of adjustment for businesses, she says, but she says she believes the new system ultimately will help the country, describing it as “a good sign of Estonia being an innovative IT-state.” At this point, e-invoices are only applicable to the public sector, and invoices in the private sector continue to be in paper and digital formats.
Another result of the July 1st legislation flood is a 25% deduction of excise tax on alcohol, which Vait attributes to the lower prices for alcohol in neighboring Latvia. Since Estonia increased the excise tax of alcohol a few years ago, Estonians and some Finnish tourists turned to the shopping centers on the Latvian border for cheaper alcohol, she reports. “Because of this competition,” she smiles, “the government is trying to make the situation better and has reduced the tax.”
Vait sighs when asked about the major challenges in the country, referring to the results of the March 3, 2019, parliamentary elections that overshadowed the subsequent EU Parliamentary elections in May 2019. Although the liberal Reform Party won, Vait says that “the election went in an unexpected way,” as the Estonian Centre Party, Pro Partia Party, and Conservative People’s Party of Estonia formed a coalition to establish a government. “This situation made business and intellectuals feel anxious,” she says, as, “Estonia has been promoted as an IT-innovative, internationally open, and stable environment for business, but the Conservative People’s Party does not favor that idea, so the issue is how to maintain that image.”
Further, Vait says, Estonia’s business law and insolvency law are currently being reviewed by two working groups at the Ministry of Justice. “The goal is to analyze the current situation and identify issues to address,” she says. As an example, the current business law does not protect minority shareholders’ rights enough, she says, hence various changes have been proposed with examples from other countries. However, Vait worries that the two laws will be only amended instead of being recreated wholesale. “Examinations do not actually mean that there will be any important changes,” she admits, adding that only adding new amendments to the acts is likely to make them more complicated. For instance, the Commercial Code was enacted almost 25 years ago, she says, and it was “amended so many times that it is hard to read it.” As a result, she says, “it would be better if new acts were adopted so that everyone could easily understand them.”
Ellex Raidla has advised Estonian telecommunications company Levikom regarding its bond emission, expected to raise capital in the amount of over EUR 5 million. The issuer of the bonds is the parent company Levikom Holding OU.
Levikom is an Estonian capital-based company offering ultra-fast Internet, television, telephone and IT infrastructure and cloud services.
The Ellex Raidla team was led by Partner Sven Papp.
Nove has successfully represented AS MV Kaubad in a dispute before the Estonian Supreme Court.
On June 19, 2019, the Supreme Court partially satisfied the appeal of AS MV Kaubad in a dispute concerning its purchase of AS Jahipaun shares.
The dispute involved representations about the financial situation of AS Jahipaun that were made to AS MV Kaubad by the unidentified seller in the transaction and other pre-sale information.
According to Nove, both the County Court and the Circuit Court found that the seller provided incorrect information [about] the value of AS Jahipaun’s assets, but that AS MV Kaubad’s claim was time-barred by a provision in the sale contract. According to the firm, the Supreme Court reversed the decisions of the lower courts and ruled that the claim was not time barred after all.
AS MV Kaubad was represented by Nove Partners Kristjan Tamm and Arsi Pavelts.