Swedish VC Creandum closes €668 million CVIII fund – its largest to date
Stockholm-based venture firm Creandum has closed Creandum VIII, a €668 million ($750 million) fund and the largest in its history. It will back early-stage technology startups from pre-Seed to Series A, making roughly 30 investments over the next two years, with particular interest in opportunities created by the rapid development of AI. The previous vehicle, the €500 million Creandum VII, closed in June 2024, and its sixth fund was €448 million in 2022.
The new fund has commitments from about 30 institutional investors in Europe and the United States, including university endowments, pension funds and charitable foundations. Creandum says it will stay a generalist investor rather than limit the fund to one technology or sector. Partner Peter Specht said one in six companies the firm has backed has become a $1B+ company. The firm is known for early bets on Spotify, Klarna, iZettle, Depop, Bolt and Trade Republic, and its more recent portfolio includes Lovable, Black Forest Labs, Modal and Rillet.
Creandum is also expanding internationally. It opened in San Francisco about a decade ago and has tripled its West Coast team, which it says helps European companies enter the US market and gives American startups access to early-stage capital. Its offices also include London and Berlin. The firm argues that the best founders no longer belong to one geography, and points to Europe's universities, engineering talent and maturing founder community. It also says AI could help European startups compete with established global players. Internally, Creandum is adopting AI-based processes to find and evaluate companies and to support its portfolio.
The close adds to a string of European fundraises in 2026, including QuantumLight's €432 million second fund, Earlybird's €360 million Fund VIII and Seedcamp's €279 million across two vehicles. In Sweden, Norrsken Evolve closed a €62 million pre-Seed fund and Turbine Capital a €54 million Nordic DeepTech vehicle. According to EU-Startups, disclosed sizes of comparable funds this year total about €1.64 billion, or €2.31 billion with Creandum VIII.