Stockholm’s Creandum appoints ex-Kry Sabina Wizander as Partner and ex-Uber Gemma Bloemen as Principal

Stockholm’s early-stage venture capital firm Creandum has announced two new appointments; (soon to be former) Chief Strategy Officer at Kry Sabina Wizander to the role of Partner, and former Senior Manager at Uber, Angel Investor, and (soon to be former) Chief Operating Officer at Elder’s Gemma Bloemen to the role of Principal.

Creandum, whose prior investments include Spotify, Klarna, and Depop, count over 100 companies in their portfolio and will welcome their first female Partner, Wizander back to the Stockholm office, while Bloemen will be based in London. Both are expected to commence with Creandum duties by late summer of this year.

After spending 3 years with McKinsey, Sabina Wizander joined Creandum and served as an investment manager. During this time she worked with General Partner Fredrik Cassel on Kry’s seed round and eventually moved over to become Director of Operations at the healthcare firm. After filling a number of roles at Kry, it would appear that it was time to come home to Creandum.

Together with the existing six Partners, Wizander will be involved with the firm’s dealflow, due diligence processes, and overall management.

“Creandum has developed impressively in the last few years and I know I’m coming back to an even stronger team, brand, and portfolio. I’m also coming in with different goggles than last time, both having been on the other side of the investor table for Kry’s series A to D, and being part of scaling a company,” says Sabina. “Given my background from Kry, Healthtech will be an area of focus for me, and anything climate-related is very close to my heart.”

A while back, Robin sat down with Sabrina during her time at Kry (starting at the 18:00 mark)

Creandum’s new Principal Gemma Bloemen is also a McKinsey graduate and served a variety of senior management positions at Uber, as well as Co-chair Women of Uber Employee Resource Group. Most recently, she’s served as Chief Operating Officer at Elder, one of the UK’s fastest-growing tech companies. Bloemen has been responsible for guiding the company’s overall strategy and was heavily involved with the $10.7 million Series B raise. 

As Gemma will be based in London, a first for Creandum, this is a clear signal that the firm intends on establishing a greater market presence.

"As a VC-backed startup executive and angel investor, I know how important it is to have the right partner along the journey, especially in the early years, and the Creandum team has an impeccable track record and reputation of adding true value,” comments Bloemen. “I am keen to help founders with the operational expertise I gained from my time at Uber and Elder and I’m looking forward to supporting Creandum’s efforts in further establishing their activity in the UK ecosystem.”