Patrik Louko has been appointed as the CEO of SmartCap, Estonia’s state-owned fund manager and a big name in defence and resilience tech investing. Louko comes from Finland, and he is relocating to Estonia to take up the role on 1 September — filling a seat that has been vacant since Sille Pettai left SmartCap at the end of June. When she announced her departure in March, Pettai said she was leaving to avoid a ‘crash and burn’ situation.
SmartCap has been a trailblazer in the arena of defence and resilience tech investing in Europe. It launched a €100 million defence fund in January 2025 aimed both at making direct and indirect investments into the space. Under Pettai, SmartCap put €10 million into Darkstar’s Fund. It also put €7 million into Frankenburg Technologies’ €30 million Series A and backed Farsight Vision in its €7.2 million Seed round.
But Louko is joining at a heated moment. SmartCap has been under the spotlight in Estonian media lately with a report from news publication Delfi detailing how €261 million of government money has been sitting unused in SmartCap funds at the same time that the country’s Ministry of Finance is taking out loans to cover daily expenses at the treasury.
“State support for the development of the venture capital market may be justified, but millions of state budget funds should not simply be put on hold and a management fee should be paid for the money on hold, while short-term bonds are issued to meet the state’s daily expenses,” said Auditor General Janar Holm, according to the Delfi report.
On top of that news, the stall in appointing a new head over the summer was not great timing to gain public support for the fund. Louko has a challenge on his hands.
Louko take over
Louko has been an advocate for defence tech in previous roles in Finland. Now he will be tasked also with promoting Estonian tech investment specifically.
“SmartCap plays an important role in supporting that ambition: being a strong partner to Estonian companies, helping open doors to international investment funds and contributing to the development of Estonia’s capital market,” he said in a statement. “I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to this work.”
Prior to joining SmartCap, Louko was at Finland’s University of Jyväskylä, where he ran the Unifund Jyväskylä, a university-affiliated venture capital company investing in early-stage companies emerging from academia. He’s credited with introducing dual-use investing into the portfolio.
Speaking about the difficulty in finding the right candidate for the job, SmartCap Supervisory Board Chair Kärt Siilats said there were ‘many strong candidates’ but given the scope of the position the criteria was expansive. Louko met that.
“He has invested in some of the world’s top VC funds, founded a startup and managed a sizeable team there, giving him a deep understanding of the market,” he said in a statement. “At the University of Jyväskylä, he was also responsible for strategy and reporting, including impact reporting, and we expect him to make a meaningful contribution in these areas at SmartCap.”
Other previous roles include strong deep-tech experience from Aalto University, Siilats said. There, Louko oversaw an incubation and spinout programme for research-driven startups coming out of the university.
There were some pretty significant players in that cohort. Among the companies to emerge out of the programme were ICEYE and IQM, both of which have since become unicorns.
“We expect Patrik to bring his global expertise to the Estonian capital market and help SmartCap continue to grow as a respected institutional investor,” Siilats concluded.
We have contacted SmartCap to speak to Louko and will update this post as we learn more.
