13.9.2016

Helsinki Area Cooperative Bank – Court case

We represented Helsinki Area Cooperative Bank, part of the OP Financial Group, one of Finland’s largest banking groups, in court proceedings concerning the scope of the bank’s obligation to accept non-EU/EEA identity documents before providing services under the Electronic Identification Services Act and concerning the nature of the assessment that must be performed by the bank. The Administrative Court of Helsinki fully upheld our client’s position setting a major precedent for the Finnish banking sector at large.

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