Congratulations to Greete-Kristiine Kuru on her new role

We are happy to congratulate our experienced colleague on her new title! Greete-Kristiine Kuru has been promoted to Managing Associate. We had a chat with Greete about her thoughts and goals in relation to her new role.

What area of law are you currently working in?

I mainly advise investors and startups on venture capital transactions. I’ve been working in this field my entire career and advised more than a hundred venture capital transactions over more than ten years. In addition, I advise startups in general, from founder relationships and option programs to various capital raising opportunities and company exits. During the last five years, a new field – the establishment of funds – was added, where my job is to advise fund managers in the creation of different types of funds.

How has your journey to your new title been?

After graduating from university, I started working as a lawyer in COBALT’s office and today I have reached the position of a Managing Associate through various career stages. At first I happened to be involved in venture capital transactions by chance, because there was no separate venture capital team in our office. The Estonian startup ecosystem was still developing, and this area was new for advisors. As the workload continued to increase in this area, I was happy to specialise. One of my first venture capital deals was advising a seed investor in Bolt’s early-stage investment round while they were still operating as a 30-person team under the name Taxify. Looking back, I can say that my career has developed in parallel with the Estonian startup sector.

What have been the biggest challenges in your career?

There have been different important challenges. At first, the biggest challenge was the specifics of venture capital transactions due to the lack of market practice in Estonia. The challenges also included advising on the first transactions in the US, the UK and other foreign countries, where Estonian investors started making startup investments. Over time a strong market practice has developed in Estonia, which means that venture capital transactions here are now significantly more efficient. At the beginning our team was small in this field, but at some point, we started expanding it. The next challenges have been associated with mentoring, developing and sharing our know-how with new team members.

What else would you like to do in your field

In terms of venture capital transactions, I would like to see more later-stage investment rounds and company exits, but this depends primarily on the general development of the startup transaction market. The greater objective is to engage even more in fund establishment in order to have the same level of experience as in venture capital matters.