Creandum, the Stockholm-based venture capital firm behind investments in Spotify, Lovable and Black Forest Labs, has just wrapped up its most ambitious fundraising round to date. The firm announced the close of Fund VIII at $750m—a significant jump from its previous €500m ($560m) Fund VII—and simultaneously established its first official office in San Francisco.

The timing reflects a broader strategic shift in how European venture capital operates. While US rival Sequoia recently announced it was pulling its London office, Creandum is doubling down on a multi-geography approach, maintaining bases in Stockholm, Berlin, London and now San Francisco.

Founder Staffan Helgesson explained the counterintuitive logic during an appearance on the Tech.eu podcast: "We need to be in San Francisco to win in Europe." Though Creandum has maintained a presence on the US West Coast since 2012, formalizing an office there signals a deeper commitment to this philosophy.

Why geography matters for European venture

Helgesson outlined several practical advantages to maintaining offices across both continents. "It's because we can be helpful to our portfolio," he said. "We are more attractive to founders. We're a better investor in Europe because we see what is happening here. We can do due diligence on both sides of the pond. And sometimes when founders fundraise, we can have touchpoints with them on both sides of the Atlantic."

The distributed model does introduce operational complexity, Helgesson acknowledged. Yet he emphasized that execution matters more than structure itself. "I don't think it's the model that is most important; it is how you execute on the model. And we have learnt how to execute a multi-hub strategy," he said.

Maintaining the hit rate

Creandum's track record includes backing Klarna and UK chip startup Olix alongside its more celebrated successes. The firm reports that one in six of its early-stage investments reaches a $1bn valuation or higher—a striking ratio in an industry where most bets fail to return capital.

When asked whether Creandum could sustain this performance with Fund VIII, Helgesson offered a sobering assessment of venture capital's unforgiving dynamics. "I think as a venture franchise you are just a bad fund away from not being relevant anymore. And you have to remain super focused and paranoid not to miss that," he said, describing the industry as "very hard."

On investment philosophy, Helgesson drew a clear line: "We will never lower the bar on entrepreneur quality simply to invest in an area that we think is exciting." This discipline, he suggested, underpins the firm's ability to identify and back founders capable of building category-defining companies.

Source: Tech.eu