Creandum Closes $500M Early-Stage Investment Fund for EU Tech Companies

Stockholm-based venture capital firm Creandum has closed its sixth early-stage fund, valued at 448 million euros (almost $500 million), that it will use to help tech company founders across Europe build their businesses, according to a Tuesday (March 1) report on EU-startups.

“The early stage is where we have always been most comfortable,” General Partner Simon Schmincke said in the report. “We commit to founders before the world catches on, before everyone knows it’s obvious.

“This new fund will continue to back similarly talented product-led founders, identifying the next-gen of European unicorns. In nearly 20 years, we have learned an inimitable amount about what early teams and founders look like that develop products and services the world needs next,” he said.

Creandum will remain focused on FinTech and consumer apps and add more investments in the creator economy, energy, Web3, metaverse and climate tech. One out of every eight companies in the Creandum portfolio is a unicorn, including Spotify, Klarna, Pleo, Depop, iZettle and Trade Republic.

“In our experience, founders who focus on building the best products still prevail,” said Sabina Wizander, who rejoined Creandum as partner last year, after leading commercials as CCO of Swedish Unicorn, Kry, in the report. “Those who dare to think in generational opportunities and solutions will succeed by virtue of their burning passion for product excellence.”

Creandum recently opened a London office, adding to existing locations in San Francisco, Berlin and Stockholm. The company also regularly updates its Diversity Index to maintain diversity within the team and portfolio, as well as introducing a new DE&I policy with clear targets and commitments.

Related: UK InsurTech Laka Nets $12M for eMobility Solution

Creandum was part of the recent $12 million investment round in London-based cyclist InsurTech startup Laka.

Also read: Berlin’s B2B Payments Startup topi Raises $4.5M Pre-Seed Funding

It also co-led a $4.5 million, pre-seed funding round for Berlin-headquartered business-to-business (B2B) payments startup topi.