Creandum, the Swedish venture capital firm that backed Spotify, Klarna and, more recently, AI coding startup Lovable, has raised a new $750 million fund to invest in early-stage startups, Bloomberg reported on 2 November, citing the firm’s Fredrik Cassel. The fund is Creandum’s eighth and its largest to date.
Creandum closed its prior fund at €500 million ($559 million) in 2024, according to the report. By our arithmetic, the new fund is about 34% larger in dollar terms.
The key insight: Bloomberg reported on 2 November that Creandum, an early backer of Spotify, Klarna and Lovable, has raised a $750 million eighth fund, its largest, about 34% above the $559 million of its 2024 fund by our arithmetic.
Creandum plans to make about 30 investments from the new fund over the next two years, Bloomberg reported, citing Cassel. The money came from around 30 institutions in the US and Europe, Cassel said.
Spread evenly, $750 million across about 30 investments would be about $25 million each, by our arithmetic. A fund does not have to invest evenly, and the report does not give a check size.
Creandum’s new fund, $750 million, versus its 2024 fund of EUR 500 million ($559 million), as reported by Bloomberg via Seeking Alpha on 2 November 2026. The +34% and the $25 million per investment are our arithmetic.
Where the AI Bets Sit
Cassel said AI investments had been a “net positive” for the firm, according to the report. He named four: AI cloudstartup Modal, AI accountingsoftware firm Rillet, Lovable, and AI model maker Black Forest Labs.
Cassel also said investors will need to look beyond large language model makers as enterprises turn to open source technology from Europe and China as a viable, cheaper alternative, according to the report. That is the same price pressure we tracked in Google, OpenAI undercut on price while Mistral licenses its hosts.
Business Pill · Open Weights Explained
Open weights explained: rent the model or run it yourself, the choice behind Cassel’s open-source point.
European Capital for AI Startups
The fund adds to the European money behind AI companies we have covered this week, including the UK AI fund’s backing of Fractile. Creandum’s new fund is early-stage money, raised from US and European institutions, according to the report.
The Structural Read
As we read the report, the plan is about 30 investments in two years, which works out to about $25 million each if spread evenly, by our arithmetic; the report gives no check size.
As we read Cassel’s comments in the report, the AI bets he named sit across the stack: a cloudstartup (Modal), an application (Lovable), a model maker (Black Forest Labs) and accountingsoftware (Rillet).
Fredrik Cassel, Creandum, as reported by Bloomberg
“net positive”
Three Implications
FOR FOUNDERS The report says Creandum plans about 30 investments over the next two years from the new fund.
FOR THE FUND’S BACKERS Cassel said the money came from around 30 institutions in the US and Europe, according to the report.
FOR THE MODEL LAYER Cassel said investors will need to look beyond large language model makers as enterprises turn to open source technology from Europe and China, according to the report.
The framework starts from the layers of a technology stack: “Some are scarce, some are abundant.”
As we read it, Cassel’s remark that enterprises are turning to cheaper open source models is a claim about which layer is becoming abundant. The framework is the owner’s argument and does not discuss Creandum.
The report does not give the fund’s split between AI and other sectors, the names of the roughly 30 institutions, or a target check size. The figures here come from Bloomberg’s report as carried by Seeking Alpha; we did not read Bloomberg’s original article.
The 34% comparison uses the dollar figure the report gives for the 2024 fund. Measured in euros, the result would depend on the exchange rate used.
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Creandum’s eighth fund is $750 million, its largest, about 34% above the $559 million of its 2024 fund by our arithmetic, with about 30 investments planned over two years. Fredrik Cassel called the firm’s AI investments, from Lovable to Black Forest Labs, a “net positive,” according to Bloomberg.
A note on sourcing. The fund figures are from Bloomberg’s report as summarised by Seeking Alpha, citing Creandum’s Fredrik Cassel; we did not read Bloomberg’s original. The 34% and $25 million figures are our arithmetic.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
