Creandum’s female checkwriters — and how they are transforming the VC and tech industry
International Women’s Day is a great opportunity to remind the ecosystem of the crucial, much-needed female movement within the Venture Capital industry, which has notoriously been non-diverse. This movement has a massive impact on gender balance across the entire tech industry, including improving the likelihood that female entrepreneurs receive investment. According to Pitchbook, female checkwriters are more likely to invest in female founders.
In the Creandum funds’ portfolio, we have a proof point: for our latest fund, Creandum VI, our target was that at least one out of four investments should have at least one female co-founder or CEO. Nearly one year into the fund’s deployment and we are close to this (21%), a number which has steadily increased with each fund. This is in line with our increasingly gender-diverse team of checkwriters, meaning people in investment decision-making roles such as General Partners, Partners and Principals. In 2022, the team has reached a 40% women-to-men ratio, which is within our definition of a gender-balanced team.
At Creandum, we have achieved this major milestone through hard work, strong diversity measurements and variousinitiatives (more on our updated DE&I policy here). But the work is far from done, as we have more targets to reach such as gender equality across the partner group.
Today, we want to highlight this much needed trend that should bode well for female founders and those wanting to pursue a career in the industry. Let’s shine a light on Creandum’s female checkwriters — we hope that this will inspire others.
Sabina Wizander
Partner, based in Stockholm
Sabina is our first and so far only female partner on the team. She broke into VC after having been at McKinsey. Two years in with Creandum from 2015 to 2017, she joined one of our most exciting companies at that time: the HealthTech company Kry. At Kry, she held different C-level positions and helped to take the company to 150M EUR revenue from Series A to D. Sabina returned to Creandum in 2021, this time armed with invaluable operator experiences that shaped her investing mindset for the better.
“Having seen the fundraising process from the other side of the table as an operator has made me very humble as an investor in how you use the founder’s time and what type of questions you ask.”
In addition to HealthTech, Sabina has a passion for ClimateTech, the Metaverse and the Creator Economy, leading deals in Scapin, Passionfroot and Enode. Want to experience Sabina’s enthusiasm and ambition? Check out Venture Europe’s latest podcast episode, or read the interview on Sifted.
Gemma Bloemen
Principal, based in London
Gemma is our gem from the Netherlands. Before joining Creandum in 2021, she gained significant experience on the operating side as COO at Elder, a UK home care marketplace, as well as in a senior management role at Uber where she was part of scaling the growing local UK team from 20 to 250 people. In addition, Gemma is one of Europe’s most active female Angel investors. Similar to Sabina, Gemma is a former McKinsey consultant. She has lived on four different continents and holds degrees from Yale and INSEAD.
Gemma has a soft spot for operationally complex B2C businesses, marketplaces, logistics, digital health, and sustainability. Gemma has always been a champion for diversity and inclusion: at Uber, she co-chaired “Women of Uber” during its turbulent year in 2017. She led Creandum’s deal in UK delivery company Packfleet as well as a HealthTech company to be announced soon.
On the European startup show you can learn more about her transition from Operator to VC.
Beata Klein
Principal, based in London
Only three years in, Beata has made her mark in the European VC and tech industry: she is one of the most influential European investors on Twitter and is famous for her founder-friendly threads. Beata joined Creandum in 2020 as an Associate in our Stockholm office and has been a key member of the firm since: She quickly worked her way up the ranks and was promoted to Investment Manager in 2021 to play an instrumental role in the establishment of our UK team in London. Her sharp thinking, structured approach and impressive networking and deal sourcing skills led to another record pace promotion to Principal in 2022.
Beata brings experience from a range of roles: a trainee within the Kinnevik Group and working closely with the CEO at Tele2. Her curiosity and love for pho led her to Vietnam, where she launched and built an EdTech company from scratch, including setting up core processes and building a strong team.
Beata’s heart beats for anything SaaS and ClimateTech. Find out more what Beata is looking for in her deal flow processes by listening to this episode on theAssociated podcast.
Hanel Baveja
Principal, based in London
Hanel is one of our most recent additions to the Creandum family and so far the only true American on the team. She brings a wealth of experience and a diverse background to our organisation, having spent the past three years as an early-stage investor at Union Square Ventures in New York City where she worked closely with 10+ seed and Series A startups across FinTech, Climate, and SaaS. Before that she worked at Insight Venture Partners. Hanel has a unique background, originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she studied Economics and Creative Writing at Harvard. Due to her semester abroad studying Art History and French in Aix-en-Provence, France, Hanel speaks French and helps cover the Paris ecosystem for Creandum. Hanel is always on top of emerging trends such as AI and ClimateTech and will play a major part in helping us dive deeper into these areas.
Equally as important as these four female checkwriters are of course all the other superwomen that are crucial to the overall success of our firm. These include our fantastic Associates Iris and Ellen, our legal powerhouse Beatrice, Head of Talent Michelle, Controller Anna-Karin, Marketing Manager Felicitas, as well as our incredible office managers and executive assistants including Ginger, Katarina, Lisa E., and Lisa J. 💪
The female powerhouses at Creandum bring new energy to our team of investors and challenge the way we think, act and evaluate companies. It unfortunately remains a challenge to find outstanding women in this industry and we have been privileged to have built this army. We won’t stop here, but continue pushing for gender equality within the ecosystem to see more diverse founding teams in the long-run.
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