SPECIALIST FUND I

Tõnu is a human genomics professor at the University of Tartu and a senior manager at Estonian Biobank – one of the most impactful and innovative health data repositories globally. Tõnu's expertise is in genomics, healthtech and techbio, and for several years he has been ranked among the most influential researchers in human genomics globally. He has mentored many science-focused teams and is a scientific advisor for several deep tech companies.

Riivo is a serial entrepreneur who has never worked anywhere else apart of his own companies. In his long history of investing as an angel investor and venture capitalist, he’s made over fifty investments. He is one of the founders of Civitta, the largest management consulting company in Emerging Europe. Riivo sources deals, analyses opportunities, and manages the fund and investments at Specialist. He helps founders and their teams with strategy, fundraising and more.

Being one of the region's most experienced early-stage tech investors, Gerri has invested in over forty startups within the last ten years. He helped grow Fortumo into one of the global leaders in mobile payments. In 2019, he was honoured as 'Investor of the Year' by Estonian startup founders. Gerri works daily with the portfolio founders, sources the deals, and manages the fund.

Samela has handled analytics and deal sourcing since Specialist was still United Angels. She also makes sure our portfolio companies meet our ESG policy. She has a BSc in Economics and Business from Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and MSc cum laude in Business IT from TalTech. Samela is most interested in the data science and deep tech verticals.

Kaspar’s expertise is in business development, mostly tech businesses and digital services. Before joining the team, Kaspar worked on M&A, investments and development projects for Ekspress Grupp, a Nasdaq Tallinn-listed media house. Kaspar’s startup investing goes back to 2015 with EstBAN, later recognized as 'Angel of the Year', and building an early version of Nordic angel syndication.

Karina has spent over a decade supporting the tech community in CEE hands-on. She started her career in banking but missed the human side of finance and wanted to contribute to tangible change. This led her to the startup world. Meeting founders daily, she also started investing in startups, joined Atomico's Angel Programme, and now doing it at scale with Specialist.