22.12.2021

Shrewd Owners Lead Change

Contrary to expectations, 2021 was, if anything, an even more eventful year than its predecessor. Global politics have become increasingly antagonistic. The Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal for a week, triggering a crisis in logistics chains. The UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow was hopeful, while simultaneously reminding us of the urgency of change. The waxing and waning of the pandemic has continued to create uncertainty.

It has perhaps been surprising to see just how ambitiously the private sector has tackled problems relating to climate change. Numerous Finnish companies have placed well on the CDP’s list for their environmental efforts. Neste, with its carbon capture and hydrogen innovations, is one example of a Finnish company providing practical solutions to the world’s most urgent problems. BlackRock’s Chairman and CEO Larry Fink also took up the cause by making climate change the theme of his annual letter to the CEOs of the world.

While these are all significant steps, they are still just the first ones. Declarations need to be backed up by action. The rapidly changing world and an increasing understanding in companies of the importance of their stakeholders will come to dictate companies’ scope for action. The significance of various stakeholder groups is constantly shifting and is having an increasing impact of corporate value creation. For example, the Coalition United for a Responsible Exxon (CURE), a group of investors with over 145 institutional members, has accused Exxon’s board of responding too slowly to climate issues and is calling for changes in the company’s management.

The green transition may still be in its infancy, but it has gotten off to a promising start. There is much work ahead for everyone, and in that work, dialogue will be key—not just between companies and their stakeholders, but between companies and their peers. Companies should share their experiences, insights and best practices. It is also clear that the market has shown its strength as a driver of change, provided that the regulatory framework is in place and emissions pricing functions correctly.

An active and skilled owner understands and respects their company’s various stakeholders. Continual dialogue is at the core of any successful ownership strategy. As the changes that have already happened prove, companies do not operate in isolation from the rest of society. They can make choices that improve the functioning and welfare of society and the planet as a whole while continuing to create excellent business opportunities.

I am hopeful that 2022 will be a less eventful year than this one—but I wouldn’t bet on it.

We look forward to continuing to build sustainable success stories and engaging in the necessary dialogue with you in the coming year. Thank you to all our clients and business partners for your trust and the work we have done together this year!

Latest references

We successfully represented a panel of reinsurance companies in an international ad hoc arbitration. The dispute arose out of a reinsurance treaty under the terms of which the reinsurers had reinsured a portfolio of risks underwritten by the cedent. The parties disagreed as to whether the reinsurance provided coverage for a certain loss that had occurred because of the market turmoil caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The case involved highly complex legal and contractual questions requiring special expertise on reinsurance law and practice. The arbitral tribunal rejected the counterparty’s claims for reinsurance compensation against our clients in full. The amount in dispute was approximately EUR 34 million.
Case published 16.9.2025
We supported byFounders.vc as the Finnish counsel in their investment in DataCrunch Oy in a USD 64 million Series A funding round. DataCrunch provides scalable AI compute solutions from energy-efficient data centers in Iceland and Finland. byFounders.vc is the community-powered early-stage venture fund investing in globally ambitious teams connected to the Nordic and Baltic countries.
Case published 11.9.2025
We advised Springvest Oyj in organising a EUR 45 million Series A funding round for ReOrbit, a space technology company and a leading provider of software-first satellites. It’s the largest all-equity Series A round in Finland and one of the most significant deals overall in the European space and defence sector. The purpose of the funding round is to support ReOrbit’s growth. The round consisted of a private placement reserved for professional and institutional investors, which included, e.g. Icebreaker.vc, Expansion VC, 10xFounders, Inventure VC, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company, and Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Company, and an EUR 8 million public share offering, which was oversubscribed within 4.5 hours. Springvest is a Finland-based investment firm that connects unlisted growth companies with investors. ReOrbit builds sovereign satellites and connected systems for national security.
Case published 9.9.2025
Castrén & Snellman advised the lead investors Ten Eleven Ventures and Tesi in the EUR 275 million Series B financing round of IQM Quantum Computers, the global leader in building quantum computers. The round is largest Series B round ever in Finland and the second largest in the Nordics. In addition to the lead investors represented by C&S, the round was participated by several new and existing investors, including pension funds Elo Mutual Pension Insurance and Varma Mutual Pension Insurance, strategic investors Companies of Schwarz Group and Winbond Electronics Corporation, and sovereign wealth funds EIC and Bayern Kapital. Ten Eleven Ventures is the original cybersecurity-focused, global, and stage-agnostic investment firm. The firm identifies, invests in, and helps grow top cybersecurity companies addressing critical digital security needs, leveraging its team, network, and experience to build successful businesses. Since its founding, Ten Eleven Ventures has raised over USD 1 billion and made over 60 cybersecurity investments across various stages worldwide. Tesi (Suomen Teollisuussijoitus Oy / Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) is a state-owned investment company with an industrial policy mission focused on driving economic growth, renewal, and investments. Tesi invests on market terms both in venture capital and private equity funds, and directly in startups, scale-ups, and large industrial projects. IQM Quantum Computers, founded as a deep tech spin-off from Aalto University in 2019, specialises in developing quantum computers utilizing superconducting circuits. The company designs and produces quantum processors at its facility in Espoo, providing computing solutions and optimizations tailored to both research and industrial applications. In addition to its Finnish operations, IQM has expanded its presence to Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, Spain, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States.
Case published 4.9.2025