1.4.2026

New promotions at Castrén & Snellman

Our business is to enable our clients’ success and ensure their legal protection. We stand committed by our customers’ side, helping them build a lasting advantage. To acknowledge their distinguished work towards our clients’ success, we promote nine of our experts to new roles.

We promote Anu Aaltonen as senior counsel and Freja Väyrynen and Lauri Ylönen as counsel. In addition, we promote four senior associate lawyers and two Business Services specialists. The promotions take effect today, 1 April 2026.

Anu Aaltonen, senior counsel, Competition & Procurement

Anu Aaltonen is an experienced competition law specialist with expertise spanning the entire field. She provides our clients with comprehensive and practical advice on all competition law issues, such as cartel investigations, dominance matters, self-assessments and M&A-related competition matters. 

Her strategic thinking and ability to grasp the big picture have benefitted our clients even in the most challenging competition law matters, which is where her skills are particularly evident. This appointment is a testament to Anu’s strong expertise and her consistent and dedicated work for our clients.

Freja Väyrynen, counsel, Private Equity

Freja Väyrynen is an attorney specialising in private equity and fund-related matters, advising clients across the private equity lifecycle with a strong commercial and client-oriented approach.

She advises our clients on a broad range of assignments, including fund formation, fund investments and secondary transactions. Freja also regularly advises clients on private equity transactions.

Lauri Ylönen, counsel, Real Estate Investments & Transactions

Attorney Lauri Ylönen advises our clients broadly in both domestic and international real estate transactions as well as in other projects and arrangements related to real estate.

In addition to his work with real estate matters, Lauri is specialised in environmental law and has long‑standing experience in environmental law assignments.

New senior associates

Jonas Holm, Environment, Energy & Green Transition

Lotta Huhtamäki, Competition & Procurement

Juhana Hyytinen, Banking & Finance

Vilma Setälä, International Construction & Projects

Appointments in Business Services

Laura Pesonen, Legal Project Manager

Jonna Vainikainen, Data & Process Manager

Warm congratulations on your new roles, Anu, Freja, Lauri, Jonas, Lotta, Juhana, Vilma, Laura and Jonna!

Latest references

We successfully represented a Finnish construction management consultancy and a safety coordinator employed by the company in criminal proceedings concerning an alleged occupational safety and health offence. The prosecutor sought a penalty for an alleged breach of occupational safety regulations. The charge arose from a fall accident at a construction site where our client acted as the safety coordinator appointed by the developer. We assessed the scope of the safety coordinator’s duties in relation to the responsibilities of the main contractor, as well as how our client had fulfilled their obligations in practice. We demonstrated that our client had acted with due care and in full compliance with their duties throughout the planning, preparation and execution of the construction project. The District Court of Eastern Uusimaa dismissed the charge against our client. The Court held that our client, in their capacity as safety coordinator, had duly fulfilled the occupational safety obligations incumbent on the developer during the planning and preparation phases of the construction project and had not been aware of the fall protection deficiency identified at the site. The judgment is final insofar as our client is concerned.
Case published 22.6.2026
We advised Efima Oyj on the sale of its financial management services business to Rantalainen as part of its strategic focus on fully concentrating on the delivery of business applications as well as data and AI solutions. As a result of the transaction, customer contracts related to financial management services and 65 experts working in these services will transfer to Rantalainen. The transaction will be carried out as a transfer of business, and the experts will move to the new owner as existing employees. Efima is a Finnish digital company that supports the sustainable growth of large and mid-sized companies by streamlining their business processes and by creating competitive advantage through the innovative use of artificial intelligence and data. The company has nearly 200 experts based in Helsinki and Tampere.
Case published 12.6.2026
We advised lead investor Ugly Duckling Ventures on the EUR 6.5 million funding round of Skyfora. The round also included Eviny Ventures, LUMO Labs and EIC Fund, alongside non-dilutive funding from Business Finland. The investment will support the commercial scale-up of Skyfora’s weather intelligence solutions, the expansion of partnerships with telecom operators, forecasting providers and meteorological institutions, and the continued growth of the team. Skyfora is a Finnish company developing high-resolution weather data solutions using patented technology that extracts atmospheric data from GNSS receivers embedded in existing infrastructure, such as telecom networks. By unlocking previously untapped data sources, Skyfora enables the next generation of AI-driven weather forecasting and supports improved decision-making across weather-sensitive industries. Ugly Duckling Ventures is a Copenhagen-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage Nordic B2B technology companies, with an emphasis on medtech, resilience tech and business services.
Case published 10.6.2026
castren snellman general atlantic iceye
We advised General Atlantic as the lead investor on ICEYE’s EUR 1 billion series F funding round, valuing the company at over EUR 10 billion. ICEYE raised EUR 450 million (USD 520 million) in a primary Series F funding round led by General Atlantic. Additional investors included Solidium, Tesi, Varma, Ilmarinen, Lifeline Ventures, Nokia, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and TCV. Together with a secondary placement, the total fundraising exceeds EUR 1 billion. ICEYE is the world leader in sovereign intelligence from space, providing continuous monitoring capabilities to detect and respond to changes in any location on Earth. The company operates the world’s largest and most advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite constellation. General Atlantic is a leading global investor with more than four and a half decades of experience providing capital and strategic support for over 885 companies throughout its history. As of March 31, 2026, General Atlantic manages approximately USD 126 billion in assets across its investment strategies. We advised General Atlantic on this transaction in collaboration with the international law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
Case published 9.6.2026