“Doubling Down” is a new series where we hear from top B2B SaaS investors on their most recent activities and takes on the current market. We had a great one last time with Harpinder Singh, Partner at Innovation Endeavors. Check that out here.
This week we’re focusing on Peter Specht, Partner at Creandum!
#1. What’s your most recent disclosed investment? Why did you do the deal?
Sometimes you realize in the first meeting that you’ve found founders you absolutely want to back. This was precisely my experience upon meeting Toni and Carlos, the founders of Embat, in an area we’ve extensively have been exploring: treasury management and payment automation.
Embat is building the next-generation treasury management software. This includes real-time bank connectivity, treasury forecasting, payment automation and automated accounting and reconciliation with e.g. ERPs. It’s one of the top 3 pain points of mid-market and enterprise CFOs. Yet incumbent TMS providers, such as Kyriba, are often very costly and take long time to implement. This is not suitable for the mid-market and lower enterprise segments, which remain underserved. We believe that in 10 years every company above a certain size will demand effective real-time treasury and automation.
#2. What’s your sweet spot for investing — check size, stage, type of deal? And how big is your current fund?
For over two decades, Creandum has specialized in early-stage investing, Seed and Series A. We operate from our 4 hubs in London, Stockholm, Berlin and San Francisco. We focus on 6 themes: SaaS, infra, fintech, consumer, climate and health. Some of our most notable investments include Spotify, Klarna, Bolt, Neo4j, Pleo or Factorial. Some more recent commitments like Modal (high performance cloud), Cast AI (DevOps automation platform), Betterstack (see inside any tech stack and resolve incidents) or Abacum (financial planning & accounting platform) give a hint on what we’re intrigued by at the moment. Our current fund VI is 500m$.
#3. What’s the #1 bit of advice you’d give to SaaS founders today?
The easy answer here these days would be to say, efficient growth. So I’m going for something else. Focus and double down on things that work. Be that in the early stages when one iterates on product market fit and finding the right ICP or later on when you scale your GTM. The importance of focus is often forgotten.
#4. What’s your pulse check on the venture markets right now, today?
The market is currently witnessing a positive trend in terms of both velocity and investor interest. However, this enthusiasm is notably more focused on specific segments and business models. Businesses involved in AI, climate, and generally any software ventures that demonstrate efficient growth are experiencing high demand. Conversely, businesses with lower margins, those requiring substantial capital investment, and consumer companies are navigating a challenging landscape.
2024 is also a year of truth. Over the previous two years, numerous companies have been extending their runway; a significant portion of these will need to approach the market for fundraising within this year.
#5. What’s different about your fund / how you invest and support founders?
We focus on high conviction, every check writer does only 1-2 new commitments per year to have more time to support founders. We focus on quality over quantity in all we do. 1 of 6 companies that we backed at seed or series A have reached bn$ valuations.
Creandum has a unique geographical coverage and reach for an early stage VC with boots on the ground across the key tech ecosystems in Europe and the US, where we provide entrepreneurs operational support for growth.
And most importantly, actually be good people to do business with. No big egos but really act with high trust, integrity and long term thinking.
#6. What’s an “exit” you’re particularly proud of?
Spotify. Creandum led the first institutional round in 2008 and it became Europe’s largest tech company to go public ten years later.
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Peter is a General Partner and runs Creandum’s London office. He focuses on SaaS, both infrastructure and application layer, and also has a soft spot for B2B marketplaces.
Prior to Creandum, Peter started his career at Lazada (South East Asia’s leading e-commerce player) and Paymill (payment startup). After some time in b2b marketing at Google and a few years at Bain & Company’s PE taskforce, Peter joined Creandum and the venture side in 2017. He has led Creandum’s commitments in Factorial, Leapsome, Twaice, Amie, Lokalise, Procuros, Vue Storefront, CarOnSale, cargo.one, Abacum and Embat.
