Elina Varendi is a member of the firm’s banking and finance and IT law practice groups focusing mainly on alternative financing methods, start-up financing, and advising fintech companies.
As a member of the banking and finance team, she has advised multiple clients in financing matters, mostly involving bond issue or loan financing transactions in Estonia and other Baltic states. She has also advised a client in being admitted to a multilateral trading facility. In addition, she has considerable experience in assisting both local and international clients with licensing proceedings before the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority in obtaining and accessing activity licences, credit institutions, payment service providers, lenders and loan intermediators.
Elina Varendi also has experience with alternative fund management structures, having advised an Estonian real estate development on setting up an alternative fund management structure, advising crowdfunding companies on regulatory matters and setting up a cash-box alternative fund management structure for pre-financing crowdfunding projects. Among her main areas of expertise are international anti-money laundering rules and the implementation of the fourth anti-money laundering directive to the Estonian legislation, which was also the topic of her master thesis.
In addition to banking and financial law, Elina Varendi has broad knowledge in IT-law and data protection, having assisted clients in concluding privacy policies, cookie policies, terms and conditions for websites and in other regulatory matters. She has also advised clients in software licensing. She has participated in the IT-law programme at the University of Tartu while obtaining her masters degree.