Creandum, the Stockholm venture firm that was an early backer of Spotify and Lovable, said on Monday, November 2, that it has closed Creandum VIII, a $750 million fund for companies "from pre-seed to Series A." That is about €671 million at the European Central Bank's latest reference rate, and the firm's largest fund to date, according to EU-Startups, which reported it as €668 million.
By SaasBuzz's calculation the new fund is about 34% larger in euros than Creandum VII, which closed at €500 million in June 2024, and nearly 17 times the €40 million first fund the firm raised in 2003.
What Creandum says the fund is for
In a letter signed by "The Creandum Partners" on the fund's site, the firm said it closed Fund VII "when the AI wave was just beginning to accelerate" and that "every single one of our portfolio companies has had to reinvent how they think." It said it could have raised more and chose not to, because "disciplined fund sizes and a consistent, generalist approach" are how it has worked for more than twenty years.
The letter names the investors only by type: "university endowments, pension funds, and charitable foundations." It says the firm has built out its San Francisco office, with "a West Coast team three times the size it was two years ago," and describes the goal as turning Creandum "from Europe's leading early-stage firm into a global early-stage specialist." The site says the fund is closed and not open to new investors.
EU-Startups reported that the fund will make about 30 investments over the next two years and has commitments from about 30 institutional investors in Europe and the United States. Tech Funding News reported that half the fund is set aside for new investments and half for follow-on rounds. Peter Specht, a partner, said in a statement quoted by EU-Startups that "1 in 6 companies we've backed has become a $1B+ company." Bloomberg reported the fund at $750 million.
Jakob Stein, a Creandum partner, set out the areas he will look at with the new money in a post on X: physical AI, AI infrastructure and industrial companies.
Post on X by @JakobStein10
@creandum viii is live. $ 750m. Pre-seed to A. No matter if SF, NYC, London, Zurich, Prague or wherever you are building we should chat! Themes for me remain: physical ai, ai infra, US x CEE collabs, real world/industrial stuff. Personally it’s the 4th fund since joining as an intern and the 1st fund I am kicking off as a partner. Things are only getting started!
From €40 million to $750 million
Creandum has reported its funds in euros and in dollars at different times, so the table keeps each size in the currency the source gave.
Fund | Size | Closed |
|---|---|---|
I | €40M | 2003 |
V | €265M | June 2019 |
VI | $500M | 2022 |
VII | €500M | June 2024 |
VIII | $750M | Nov. 2026 |
Sources: Creandum (Fund VIII; Fund V release); Tech Funding News (Funds I, VI and VII); EU-Startups (Fund VII). EU-Startups gave Fund VI as €448 million.
Converted at the ECB's October 30 reference rate of $1.1172 to the euro, Fund VIII is about €671 million, 2.5 times the size of Fund V seven years ago. EU-Startups' and Tech Funding News' €668 million figure implies a rate of about $1.123.
What it means for software founders
The fund's own site shows how much of the firm's recent investing is new. Of the 180 portfolio companies it lists, each tagged with a "since" year, 33 date from 2024 or later, and seven in 2026, among them OLIX, Machenta and Atlas Bio. The roster stretches back to 2003.
The names Creandum's partners chose to point to on Monday are AI software and infrastructure companies. Staffan Helgesson, the founder, named "Lovable, Spotify, Modal, Black Forest Labs, and Rillet" in a statement quoted by Tech Funding News. Katharina Wilhelm, a partner who joined Creandum eight months ago, listed OLIX, Modal, Black Forest Labs and Lovable as companies "defining the AI era" in her own post.
Post on X by @Kathi_Wilhelm
8 months ago I joined @Creandum. Today we’re announcing Creandum VIII: our new fund to back the world’s most ambitious founders, from day one 🚀 What makes me most excited to be a part of this team: 🌱 Early believer in some of the most exciting companies defining the AI era - all across the stack: @OLIXComputing, @modal, @bfl_ai, @Lovable. ⏱️ Nobody settles. What was good yesterday isn’t good enough today. 💚 We turned venture into a team sport here. One team across SF, London, Berlin and Stockholm. My belief: the biggest impact of AI will come from applying it in the physical world and in science. 🦾 🧬 That’s where I’ll continue to spend my time, with founders like @Edward + @vitalisvos19 (@Machenta) and Simon + Sebastian (Atlas Bio). If you’re building there, my DMs are open. Thrilled to be on your team @_fredrik, @specht_p, @HanelBaveja, @JakobStein10, @shelgesson, @fritjofsson! 🚀 http://cviii.creandum.com
For a founder raising a first round, the arithmetic is the point. Tech Funding News calculated that if half of $750 million goes into about 30 new companies, the average first cheque is about $12.5 million, which it called more than the norm for an early-stage round. Creandum's letter says it will keep doing pre-seed to Series A. Half the fund is held back for follow-on rounds. Tech Funding News also reported that Creandum says US venture firms are now competing for deals in Europe.
