The Swedish venture firm behind Spotify, Klarna and Lovable has closed its largest fund yet, with half the capital reserved for new investments and the rest for existing portfolio companies.
European venture capital firm Creandum has closed its eighth fund at €668 million, approximately $750 million, making it the largest vehicle in the firm's 23-year history.
The new fund, Creandum VIII, will back companies from pre-seed through Series A, primarily across Europe, while expanding the firm's reach in the United States.
The fund is roughly one-third larger than its predecessor, Fund VII, which closed at €500 million in June 2024.
Creandum plans to allocate half the capital to new investments and reserve the other half for follow-on rounds in existing portfolio companies. The firm expects to make around 30 investments over the next two years.
The fund attracted commitments from approximately 30 institutional investors across Europe and the US, including university endowments, pension funds and charitable foundations. Individual LPs have not been publicly identified.
AI Is a Major Theme, Not the Entire Fund
Creandum has backed some of Europe's most successful technology companies, including Spotify, Klarna, Depop, Bolt and Trade Republic.
Its more recent investments reflect the firm's growing exposure to AI.
The portfolio includes Lovable, the AI software development platform; Black Forest Labs, the company behind the FLUX image models; Modal, which provides infrastructure for running AI workloads; and Rillet, an AI-powered accounting platform.
These investments illustrate where Creandum sees opportunities emerging from AI, particularly in software development, infrastructure and enterprise applications.
However, Fund VIII is not an AI-only vehicle. Creandum is maintaining its generalist strategy, with AI viewed as a technology reshaping multiple industries rather than a separate investment category.
Half a Billion Dollars More for Existing Winners
One notable feature of the new fund is how much capital Creandum is reserving for companies it already backs.
Half of the €668 million will go toward follow-on investments.
That gives the firm the ability to increase its ownership in companies that demonstrate strong growth, rather than relying entirely on finding new startups.
It is a strategy that makes sense for a firm with an established portfolio. Creandum says approximately one in six of its investments has reached a valuation above $1 billion.
The larger fund also increases the amount of capital available to support companies as they expand internationally and raise larger financing rounds.
Creandum Is Growing Its US Presence
The fundraising comes alongside an expansion of Creandum's American operations.
The firm has tripled its San Francisco team over the past year, strengthening its ability to work with founders in the US while maintaining its existing offices in Stockholm, London and Berlin.
For European founders, the expansion could provide additional access to American investors, customers and commercial relationships.
It also reflects a change in how European venture firms are approaching the US market. Rather than treating American expansion as something that happens after a company has established itself in Europe, Creandum wants to build relationships with founders on both sides of the Atlantic from the beginning.
With Fund VIII, the firm has more capital to deploy, a larger American presence and an established portfolio of companies benefiting from the current AI cycle.
The question now is whether it can turn that position into another generation of European technology leaders.
Sources: Creandum Fund VIII · Tech.eu · EU-Startups