"The borders between seed and series A have really fudged, " said Ciaran O'Leary, a Berlin-based partner at Earlybird Venture Capital.

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He was trained at Arnold and Porter in Washington and was a partner at Howrey, Swidler Berlin and Dickstein Shapiro, specializing in dispute resolution and insurance, areas that put a premium on calculating what a case would cost to litigate and how much a jury might award in damages at the end.

FORBES: Juridica Chief Used To Argue Lawsuits, Now He Invests In Them

Etihad has stakes in Air Seychelles, Air Berlin, Virgin Australia and Aer Lingus, with these partner airlines contributing 19% of passenger revenues.

BBC: Etihad Airways sees profits triple