Stockholm-based venture capital firm Creandum has closed a €668 million fund to invest in early-stage technology startups from pre-Seed through Series A. Creandum VIII is the firm’s largest fund to date and is expected to support approximately 30 investments over the next two years.
The fund will have a particular interest in opportunities created by the rapid development of artificial intelligence, while maintaining Creandum’s generalist investment strategy rather than focusing exclusively on one sector or technology. The firm said changes in software development, enterprise technology and digital infrastructure are creating opportunities for new companies to challenge established products and business models.
Creandum VIII follows the firm’s €500 million Creandum VII fund, which closed in June 2024. The new vehicle has commitments from approximately 30 institutional investors in Europe and the United States, including university endowments, pension funds and charitable foundations.
Peter Specht, a partner at Creandum, said the firm would continue to focus on early-stage companies and noted that one in six companies backed by the firm has become a billion-dollar company. He also said Creandum had tripled its San Francisco team over the past 12 months and supports founders globally from the earliest stages.
Creandum said the new fund reflects its expanding international ambitions. The firm remains focused on Europe but is strengthening its presence in the United States to reach founders working across markets, support European companies entering the US and provide early-stage capital to American startups. Creandum established its San Francisco presence approximately a decade ago and has tripled the size of its West Coast team over the past two years.
Founded in 2003 by Staffan Helgesson, Creandum has offices in Stockholm, London, Berlin and San Francisco. Its previous investments include Spotify, Klarna, iZettle, Depop, Bolt and Trade Republic. Its more recent portfolio includes AI software development startup Lovable, AI image-generation company Black Forest Labs, cloud infrastructure startup Modal and AI accounting platform Rillet.
The firm also said it is using AI-based processes internally to identify investment opportunities, evaluate companies and support its portfolio. Creandum described these changes as part of an effort to adapt its investment operations to the technologies developed by the startups it backs.
Sources: EU-Startups.