How to Get Funded by Creandum: A €668 Million Fund for Pre-Seed to Series A Founders

Creandum, the Swedish venture firm behind early bets on Spotify and Lovable, announced on November 2, 2026 that it closed Fund VIII at €668 million, its largest fund to date, according to Tech Funding News. The fund will back around 30 startups from pre-seed to Series A, with half held for follow-on rounds. This profile sets out the facts, how the fund compares with its predecessors and the market, and how founders can approach the firm. We rely on Tech Funding News for the fund details, since we could not find a second source or the firm's own release.

The Fund in Numbers

• Size: €668 million, the firm's largest fund
• Stage: pre-seed to Series A
• Portfolio plan: around 30 startups
• Split: half for new investments, half for follow-ons
• Status: closed to new investors, with US and European institutional backers
• Predecessors: Fund VII closed at €500 million in June 2024, and Fund VI at $500 million in 2022

By our arithmetic, the fund is about 34 percent larger than Fund VII in euros. If half of €668 million goes into around 30 new companies, the average initial investment is about €11 million before fees, though the real figure depends on how many companies the fund backs and how much is held for fees and reserves. That is high for early-stage rounds, so expect Creandum to lead or co-lead larger rounds, including Series A.

Who Runs It

Staffan Helgesson founded Creandum in 2003 with two Swedish pension funds as anchor investors and a €40 million first fund, so Fund VIII is nearly 17 times the first. He came from Startupfactory, a mobile internet investor backed by SoftBank and Investor AB, and has been in European venture since 1999. Creandum opened a San Francisco office in 2012 and a London office in 2021, and over the past year it has tripled its San Francisco team to pursue US founders, according to the report.

The Portfolio

Tech Funding News and the firm name these companies:

• Spotify, an early investment that made the firm's name
• Lovable: Creandum led its $15 million pre-Series A in February 2025, and Lovable raised $400 million at $13.3 billion in August 2026, led by Menlo Ventures and EQT's Scaleup Europe Fund
• Black Forest Labs: a $300 million Series B at $3.25 billion in August 2026, led by AMP and Salesforce Ventures
• Rillet: Creandum co-led a $13.5 million seed in 2024, and Rillet raised $100 million at a $1 billion valuation in August 2026, led by ICONIQ
• Modal, which has also raised large rounds this year

The firm says one in six of its early-stage investments is now worth $1 billion or more. That is a firm claim and we could not verify it. Its portfolio includes well over 200 companies, per the report.

What Makes This Fund Different

• Transatlantic focus: Creandum says about half of the capital invested in European tech last year came from US investors, while US tech funding rarely flows the other way. It is responding by building up in San Francisco and says it will increasingly back US founders
• Early start, large cheques: the firm backs founders at the earliest stage but now has the size to keep investing
• Follow-on reserves: holding half the fund for follow-ons helps it protect ownership as companies grow

The Market Context

KPMG, using PitchBook data cited by Tech Funding News, puts European venture fundraising at $14.9 billion across 111 funds through the end of September 2026, so Fund VIII accounts for roughly 5 percent. Other recent closes include Earlybird Fund VIII at €360 million, QuantumLight at €432 million and Seedcamp at €279 million. In our own Europe list we covered Sprints at €725 million, Entourage at €100 million and others. Larger funds can write bigger cheques, but a fund this size needs very large exits to return capital.

The Ownership Question

Tech Funding News flags that Creandum is good at spotting early companies, but its stake can shrink when later investors lead large rounds. For founders, that means a Creandum seed or Series A may be followed by a large round from a US growth fund, and your cap table will change quickly.

Who Creandum Is a Fit For

• European and US founders at pre-seed, seed or Series A with a strong team and a large market
• Companies in software, AI and infrastructure, where the firm has a track record
• Founders who want a lead investor and a firm with offices in Stockholm, London, Berlin and San Francisco

It is less obviously a fit for small cheques, since the fund's scale favours larger rounds.

How to Approach Creandum

• Get a warm introduction from a portfolio founder or a co-investor, since the firm backs founders early and relies on networks
• Send a short note with what you build, your proof, the round size and why this firm
• Prepare your data room, your cap table and a dilution model that includes any SAFE
• Ask whether the firm expects to be lead investor and what its term sheet includes
• Ask how it handles follow-on rounds, including when you raise a large later round led by another fund

Questions to Ask Before You Pitch

• What is the typical first cheque, and how much is reserved for my company later?
• Does the firm take a board seat at seed and Series A?
• How does it think about ownership when a larger fund leads the next round?
• What support does the platform team offer on hiring and US expansion?

What We Could Not Confirm

We could not confirm the fund details through a second source or the firm's own release, nor the one-in-six claim, the average cheque size or whether the fund has made investments yet. Check Creandum's own materials for the latest details.

Browse the investor directory for more active funds, or explore active capital on AngelLinx @ angellinx.ai/register.

AngelLinx Intelligence | angellinx.ai