Baltic M&A
and private equity
forum

Ragnar Sass is a serial entrepreneur, co-founder of Pipedrive and Darkstar, and an active investor in the Baltic and Ukrainian tech scenes.

Maarja Pärs is an Investment Director at Livonia Partners, supervising investments in Bestair, Telema and Stebby exit. With over a decade of experience in the investment industry, Maarja has developed extensive expertise in private investments. Before joining Livonia Partners, she was responsible for private debt investments at LHV Pension Funds. Dedicated to supporting the growth of the local VC/PE ecosystem, Maarja is also a board member of the Estonian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association.

Deimanté is seasoned private equity professional with over 10 years of experience in private equity. She is passionate about driving growth within the sector. Before joining Invalda INVL Group she was an M&A lawyer, advising clients on transactions with a combined value of approximately EUR 2 billion.

Garri co-founded Lazard and leads the Venture and Growth Banking (VGB) in London and LA. He studied at Cambridge University and trained as a Manufacturing Engineer in the early 90s and then wrote a thesis on Chinese export growth. From 1994-2005 he worked at Goldman Sachs focusing on technology related equity raising as well as the digitization of the trading floor. From 2005-2015 Garri was one of the founding partners of Circle, now the UK’s largest independent hospital group which raised over $500m across 10 financing rounds (private and public). Garri sits on the boards of Picfair (Photographer SaaS) and Educate (Teacher Career Mgt SaaS) and Whitgift School in London. He is a former Board member of Crowdcube, the world’s largest Crowdfunder, and a former Main Committee member of the MCC - the owners of Lord’s cricket ground.

Yuri straddles the business world and the academic world. As Partner at Claria Strategy, he supports private capital investors on strategic due diligence and portfolio value creation. As a Lecturer at London Business School, he teaches strategy to Executive MBAs. Yuri enjoys cooking, classical music, and cocktail culture.

Tomas Kairys is the EBRD’s Head of the Baltic States. He has overall responsibility for the Bank’s projects in the three Baltic countries, leads implementation of EBRD’s strategy in investment operations and policy reform engagement with the business community and the governments. Tomas joined the Bank in 2006 from the private sector, has diverse debt and equity product, sector and geographic background having worked across many of the Bank’s countries of operations from London HQ as well as Turkey and China. Tomas is a Lithuanian national. He also a has legal background and holds degrees from University of Cambridge and Vilnius University.

Indrek Seppo is an entrepreneur and data science lecturer. He has been studying neural networks and applying them to practical problems, such as taking down drones with lasers without harming birds in the process for the last ten years. Recently, he has been consulting Estonian companies and government offices regarding AI strategy and implementation. His second favorite subject to talk about besides AI is pension funds, and wondering why he is never invited twice to the same dinner party.

Since 2006, Inga Miliauskienė has focused her career on the banking and financial services sector. She began her journey in investment banking at J.P. Morgan in London and has continued to advance her career within financial institutions, specializing in structuring blended finance vehicles across various European and cross-border markets. With over 10 years of experience in private equity and venture capital, she has also worked with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London and held various finance and business-related roles in Lithuania. Additionally, she has served as an independent consultant in fundraising for private equity, venture capital, SMEs, capital structuring, investor relations, and policy advising. In November 2023, she assumed the position of Head of the Private Banking and Investment Department at SEB Bank.

Sille is the CEO of SmartCap, an Estonian state investment company focused on venture capital and growth investments, with total assets under management of more than EUR 400 million. At SmartCap, she is leading the investments of three multi-strategy funds: the SmartCap Venture Capital Fund, which backs emerging regional venture capital funds to contribute to capital market development and diversify capital supply; the SmartCap Green Fund, dedicated to the green transition; and the SmartCap Defence Fund, aimed at bolstering growth in the Estonian defence industry and tech sector.

Sille has 18 years of experience in asset management as an investment executive. She has been responsible for managing alternative investment portfolios, including private debt, private equity, and real estate, at Swedbank Investment Funds and Hansa Private Equity Partners.

Heikki has over 25 years of experience in Baltic M&A transactions spanning multiple industries and deal structures. He has had lots of success stories but also notable failures. These days, his hobbies revolve around reading and philosophizing about esoteric takes on world problems and the metaphysical nature of our current malaise – a clear sign that he's entering middle age.

Aleksander is a General Partner at Balnord, a high conviction first check investor in frontier technologies from the Baltic Sea Region. As a former operator turned deep tech investor, Aleksander focuses on sourcing and leading investments at Balnord, having recently invested in Atmos Space Cargo, a NewSpace company reinventing space cargo logistics, strengthening European technological autonomy. Prior to Balnord, Aleksander invested in over 20+ companies including Telemedi (acq. by UNIQA), Nordigen (acq. by GoCardless), Enso or HeavyFinance. Aleksander holds a MSc from the London School of Economics and privately is passionate about geopolitics, technology and sports (as an avid tennis player).

Since joining Accession Capital Partners in 2008, Piotr participated and has been responsible for multiple investments of ACP across various sectors and geographies. Among others he ran the fund’s investment into consumer finance and financial services businesses in the region, manufacturing companies in Poland and Lithuania, international capital goods producer, telecommunications company in Bulgaria. Piotr started his career at EY Poland.

Julijus has worked in Baltic M&A for over 25 years starting with privatizations, IPOs, Nordic and Baltic consolidation and several energy transition transactions.

Toomas Prangli is one of Estonia's best-known M&A and private equity transaction advisers. Celebrating his 28th year with Sorainen, he heads the firm's M&A practice group and has focused on the startup and technology sectors in recent years.

Toomas has advised on many complex fundraising rounds for local startup companies, contributing to the birth of Estonian-based unicorns such as Skype, Bolt, Pipedrive, and Veriff. He ranks at the top of the Mergermarket CEE legal advisers league table by the number of transactions advised in the region.

Toomas is passionate about contributing to the development of the local startup ecosystem and is also a founder and trustee of the Gastronomy Awards Society of Estonia (the Silverspoon Gastronomy Awards) and a member of the supervisory board of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (ERSO).

LHV Asset Management has been one of the most active investors in local PE and VC space in Estonia and has also over the last five years increased its exposure to different PE strategies and geographies outside of the Baltics. Vahur and his team have seen various strategies and approaches, many success stories and also occasionally some more problematic issues. During his free time Vahur likes to play different sports including rackets and spend time with his three kids.

Kaupo Lepasepp is the Country Managing Partner of law firm Sorainen in Estonia. Believing that the future of the legal business is closely connected with technology, Kaupo's role is to help Sorainen prepare for that future based on systematised knowledge, an excellent understanding of business processes, and supportive technology.

Kaupo co-heads Sorainen's Energy & Infrastructure sector, leading a strong cross-border team advising on the most demanding assignments involving foreign or international elements (interconnections, cross-border trade, etc.).

Kaupo's contributions to national defence have earned him several high-level state honours. In 2023, the President of the Republic of Estonia promoted him to lieutenant, and in 2024, the Estonian Defence League awarded him the Class III Medal of Merit.

Nerijus Drobavičius is a seasoned professional in M&A with more than 15 years of experience and a partner at INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund. He worked in various roles and industries for another 10 years before that, so his expertise extends from financial knowledge at the operational level to strategic decision-making at the board level. Nerijus enjoys all things engineering and is always keen to understand how things work and fix them if they break. In his day-to-day work, this helps him apply this fixing habit to organizations as well.

Kriss is seasoned investment professional in fund-of-funds (FoFs) investments at EIF. After having spent almost a decade in VC FoFs investments across various sectors, stages and geographies, for the last year, Kriss has refocused my attention on supporting EIF in strengthening its Infrastructure FoFs investments. Currently, he is leading a team spearheading Energy Transition investments at EIF. He holds an MBA degree with distinctions from INSEAD business school (France, Singapore). In his free time, he focuses on outdoors running, cycling, kayaking, alpine and XC skiing. If all has gone according to the plan, by the time of the event Kriss should have completed Engadin Ski Marathon 2025 in Switzerland.

Valeria Kiisk, PhD, is a partner of Redgate, a pan-Baltic investment banking group. Redgate Capital provides financial advisory services to Baltic SMEs, covering capital raising, corporate mergers and acquisitions as well as commercial real estate transactions. Redgate Wealth is a wealth management boutique, committed to offering a customized approach to return generation. Redgate Fund Management is a fund manager focusing on alternative asset classes. In daily work, Valeria works with ambitious companies helping them realize their growth plans, through M&A or capital raising. Valeria also is an acting head of the capital markets priority area within FinanceEstonia. She can occassionally be seen as a lecturer sharing her knowledge – she leads the corporate finance course in EBS Executive MBA and sometimes gives guest lectures in other places.

Ene Õunmaa is responsible for Swedbank pension funds illiquid investments and investments in Baltic countries. She is working with Swedbank since 2011 and has experience in different asset classes including bonds and equities.

Philip co-founded Darkstar, a coalition of over unicorn founders, hackers, and investors pushing for a European Defense Tech ecosystem. He serves as the Non-Executive Chairman of the German Red Cross Pension Fund. Philip also is an advisor and LP multiple Venture Capital Funds.

Lauris Balga has 25 years investment banking experience. Previously he has worked at SEB Enskilda, PwC. Lauris holds an MSc from Stockholm School of Economics and LL.M from University of Latvia. In his free time he likes to play football with the old boys.