Peter Specht becomes our new General Partner

2023 is a special year for Creandum as we celebrate 20 years as a firm. We started in Stockholm and have since opened hubs in San Francisco, Berlin and London and are today fully pan-European with a strong bridge to the US. We would not have been able to invest in category defining businesses and expand our wings to these European centers without an incredible team behind us. This is why today is a significant milestone in the Creandum journey as we promote Peter Specht to General Partner.

Peter joined Creandum in 2017 from Bain and with previous industry experience through the Rocket Internet Group and at Google. He took a leap of faith to join Creandum as DACH was a new territory for us and we had just set up, with Simon Schmincke alone in Berlin. Peter helped Simon build out the Berlin hub, quickly establishing himself for his work ethic, analytical skills, relationship building, goal seek mentality and firm building. Even though many of us consistently move between our different hubs, Peter is actually the only Creandum team member who has firmly lived in all Creandum’s hubs. An example of his determination is, when he was located in the firm’s San Francisco office, he had a list of 100+ people he wanted to meet, and he succeeded in spending time with them all.

Peter has always been keen to take the firm forward, with an extra eye on helping the funds’ portfolio companies grow. Peter initiated Creandum’s network partner setup to advise the portfolio in business development and sourcing (among many other things) and fostering a collaborative community (Peter recently hired our Head of Network, Jennifer Cabala, to expand this function). Peter’s content with practical insights for founders, such as ‘Getting from Seed to Series A’, and templates for your ‘Series A Deck’ and ‘Financial Plan’ have proven especially popular both among the Creandum funds’ portfolio and the industry more widely.

Peter also has an eye for exploring new markets for investment opportunities and leads our efforts in Technical SaaS companies.

Peter opened up the Spanish market for Creandum. It helped that he lived in Barcelona earlier on in his career, leading the funds’ investments in HR-software company Factorial (2018) and Abacum (2021) which enables finance teams to scale faster. These investments gave Peter a good foothold in the ecosystem. 

Factorial announced its $120m Series C in October 2022, at a $1bn valuation, which, according to Sifted, was the newest Spanish unicorn. Abacum raised a $25m Series A in November 2021 and at the time of the announcement had over 50 clients and opened local offices in the US and LatAm. Peter’s other relationships include workplace productivity app Amie, battery analytics platform TWAICE, CarOnSale, cargo.one, Leapsome and Procuros.

“Peter has been with us since 2018, when Factorial was little more than an idea and a small team. He continues to serve as a trusted and valuable board member and has helped us grow to one of the fastest growing SAAS companies in Europe. Peter's continued support to me as a CEO as well as to Factorial is indisputable. It's great to see Peter grow in his own journey as we do with Factorial.”

Jordi Romero, CEO and Founder, Factorial

"Peter is simply the best investor to have by your side. He operates at lightspeed and gets s*** done like there is no tomorrow. He is proactively helpful and very conviction driven… is consistent during good and bad times… he understands very fast what truly matters (a rare gift), and brings a wealth of strategic insights. We couldn’t be happier to see Peter’s promotion to GP and remain very excited to continue working with him".

Julio Martinez, CEO and Founder, Abacum

In June 2022, after 5 years in our Berlin hub Peter decided to join our UK team and continue building out the London hub for Creandum. He took another leap of faith in moving to London as we had started in a Soho co-working space. One of his first hires was our Principal Hanel Baveja, who he enticed over from Union Square Ventures in New York.

In June 2023, we opened our own home on Carnaby Street and is a hub for a team of 10 people with lots of space for portfolio founders based in the UK or internationally to come and work with us, to take board meetings, or attend our events. If you haven’t visited already, please get in touch with any of us as we would love to show you around. For nearly 10 years, Creandum has been interested in investing in the UK market, with a portfolio now including Depop, Lindus Health, Tide, Packfleet and YuLife.

We can’t wait for Peter to take a pivotal role in the firm moving forward, in building the franchise and in investing in the next European superstars. Everyone we interact with - be it our colleagues, portfolio companies and existing LPs - all say the same thing: Peter is special and we are very fortunate to have him as part of the team. 

Simon Schmincke, General Partner: “When I first met Peter in a Bangkok coffee shop 10 years ago, I had no idea what this serendipitous encounter would lead to. Seeing him execute, lead and invest at Creandum fills me with joy and pride. Acknowledging his skills and dedication by promoting him to General Partner is only a consequence of his impact at the firm. I am looking forward to the next 10 years where I can learn, laugh and be challenged by and with you.”