Nordictechfin https://paragraph.com/@jljohan undefined Fri, 10 Jul 2026 17:25:02 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html https://github.com/jpmonette/feed en All rights reserved <![CDATA[The secret Nordic fintech unicorn hunter - Creandum]]> https://paragraph.com/@jljohan/the-secret-nordic-fintech-unicorn-hunter-creandum-5 dE7Il3jGuCWsS47c78ID Tue, 05 Oct 2021 20:03:05 GMT Creandum is one of the leading Nordic venture investment firms. But did you know that 3 of their fintech portfolio companies turned into unicorns just this spring? ๐Ÿฆ„๐Ÿฆ„๐Ÿฆ„

In this post, we will walk you through what we believe are their top 5 current fintech investments and see if we can identify any takeaways. Let's go!

  1. Pipe

One of the hottest up-and-coming fintechs in the world. Enables SaaS companies to finance themselves by selling future recurring revenues. Since launching mid-2020 Pipe is now valued at $2B. Exciting to see how solutions like Pipe will affect the whole financing space. Pipe enables startups to self-finance and grow without venture investments or traditional credits. See this separate post on how Pipe works under the hood.

B2B, financing/credit space.

2. Klarna

If Pipe is one of the hottest fintech, but Klarna is one of the highest valued. In its latest investments round, Klarna got a $45.6B valuation. ๐Ÿ’ธ๐Ÿ’ธ๐Ÿ’ธMost known for its Buy - Now - Pay - Later product, Klarna also has a slew of other products, a consumer-facing shopping app, open banking infrastructure(Plaid & Tink competitor), credit card, and saving account.

B2B, B2C, payment and credit space.

3. Pleo

Latest valuation $1.7B."Pleo takes all the hassle out of company spending by offering smart credit cards paired with smart, beautiful software."Pleo is comparable to US-based Brex and it will be exciting to see how Pleo will expand both geographically and product-wise. More B2B products or Europe-wide expansion?

B2B, company expenses.

4. Trade Republic

Latest valuation $5B+Trade Republic offers mobile-only and commission-free broker service in Europe. Based in Germany but are expanding heavily across Europe. Could be compared to US based neo broker Robin Hood or Avanza/Nordnet here in the Nordics.

B2C, investments.

5. Swan

"Use Swan's APIs to embed white-labeled banking features like accounts, cards, and IBANs into your workflows and UX." Swan is a Banking as a Service(BaaS) provider that enables other companies to quickly and easily launch financial products. Swan position themselves nicely in the growing embedded finance trend and it will be exciting to see the development of this young fintech, in September 2021 they got an $18.7 million investment. Could it be an upcoming fintech unicorn for Creandum?

B2B, BaaS

Bonus:

6. Other notable Creandum fintech investments:

Seon - democratizing fraud fighting \n ๐Ÿ”Bokio - free automated accounting for SMEs \n Tide - business banking service \n Billie - SME financing \n Taxfix - making tax declarations easy \n Osu - seamless instant payments for self employed \n Abacum - financial planning for mid market companies

Note, Creandum usually invests quite early in seed, series A rounds with an initial ticket size of between 200k euro - 8m euro. The investments in this thread are taken from Creandum's own website and might not reflect their whole current fintech portfolio.

Reflections. With picks like Klarna, iZettle(exited), Trade Republic, Pleo, and Pipe all turning into unicorns(over a $1B valuation) it is safe to say Creandum has been pretty good at identifying fintechs with good potential for growth.With bets ranging from consumer credit, investments, company expenses, and alternative financing solutions, Creandum invests broadly in the fintech space. Let's just say they have a good nose for fintech ๐Ÿฆ„ hunting.

]]> jljohan@newsletter.paragraph.com (Nordictechfin) <![CDATA[The secret Nordic fintech unicorn hunter - Creandum]]> https://paragraph.com/@jljohan/the-secret-nordic-fintech-unicorn-hunter-creandum-4 4k8iv3GHEjX6de3HnSPs Tue, 05 Oct 2021 20:02:42 GMT Creandum is one of the leading Nordic venture investment firms. But did you know that 3 of their fintech portfolio companies turned into unicorns just this spring? ๐Ÿฆ„๐Ÿฆ„๐Ÿฆ„

In this post, we will walk you through what we believe are their top 5 current fintech investments and see if we can identify any takeaways. Let's go!

  1. Pipe

One of the hottest up-and-coming fintechs in the world. Enables SaaS companies to finance themselves by selling future recurring revenues. Since launching mid-2020 Pipe is now valued at $2B. Exciting to see how solutions like Pipe will affect the whole financing space. Pipe enables startups to self-finance and grow without venture investments or traditional credits. See this separate post on how Pipe works under the hood.

B2B, financing/credit space.

2. Klarna

If Pipe is one of the hottest fintech, but Klarna is one of the highest valued. In its latest investments round, Klarna got a $45.6B valuation. ๐Ÿ’ธ๐Ÿ’ธ๐Ÿ’ธMost known for its Buy - Now - Pay - Later product, Klarna also has a slew of other products, a consumer-facing shopping app, open banking infrastructure(Plaid & Tink competitor), credit card, and saving account.

B2B, B2C, payment and credit space.

3. Pleo

Latest valuation $1.7B."Pleo takes all the hassle out of company spending by offering smart credit cards paired with smart, beautiful software."Pleo is comparable to US-based Brex and it will be exciting to see how Pleo will expand both geographically and product-wise. More B2B products or Europe-wide expansion?

B2B, company expenses.

4. Trade Republic

Latest valuation $5B+Trade Republic offers mobile-only and commission-free broker service in Europe. Based in Germany but are expanding heavily across Europe. Could be compared to US based neo broker Robin Hood or Avanza/Nordnet here in the Nordics.

B2C, investments.

5. Swan

"Use Swan's APIs to embed white-labeled banking features like accounts, cards, and IBANs into your workflows and UX." Swan is a Banking as a Service(BaaS) provider that enables other companies to quickly and easily launch financial products. Swan position themselves nicely in the growing embedded finance trend and it will be exciting to see the development of this young fintech, in September 2021 they got an $18.7 million investment. Could it be an upcoming fintech unicorn for Creandum?

B2B, BaaS

Bonus:

6. Other notable Creandum fintech investments:

Seon - democratizing fraud fighting \n ๐Ÿ”Bokio - free automated accounting for SMEs \n Tide - business banking service \n Billie - SME financing \n Taxfix - making tax declarations easy \n Osu - seamless instant payments for self employed \n Abacum - financial planning for mid market companies

Note, Creandum usually invests quite early in seed, series A rounds with an initial ticket size of between 200k euro - 8m euro. The investments in this thread are taken from Creandum's own website and might not reflect their whole current fintech portfolio.

Reflections. With picks like Klarna, iZettle(exited), Trade Republic, Pleo, and Pipe all turning into unicorns(over a $1B valuation) it is safe to say Creandum has been pretty good at identifying fintechs with good potential for growth.With bets ranging from consumer credit, investments, company expenses, and alternative financing solutions, Creandum invests broadly in the fintech space. Let's just say they have a good nose for fintech ๐Ÿฆ„ hunting.

]]> jljohan@newsletter.paragraph.com (Nordictechfin) <![CDATA[The secret Nordic fintech unicorn hunter - Creandum]]> https://paragraph.com/@jljohan/the-secret-nordic-fintech-unicorn-hunter-creandum-3 XEtCrlWUaqYvPX3QT1jM Tue, 05 Oct 2021 20:02:31 GMT Creandum is one of the leading Nordic venture investment firms. But did you know that 3 of their fintech portfolio companies turned into unicorns just this spring? ๐Ÿฆ„๐Ÿฆ„๐Ÿฆ„

In this post, we will walk you through what we believe are their top 5 current fintech investments and see if we can identify any takeaways. Let's go!

  1. Pipe

One of the hottest up-and-coming fintechs in the world. Enables SaaS companies to finance themselves by selling future recurring revenues. Since launching mid-2020 Pipe is now valued at $2B. Exciting to see how solutions like Pipe will affect the whole financing space. Pipe enables startups to self-finance and grow without venture investments or traditional credits. See this separate post on how Pipe works under the hood.

B2B, financing/credit space.

2. Klarna

If Pipe is one of the hottest fintech, but Klarna is one of the highest valued. In its latest investments round, Klarna got a $45.6B valuation. ๐Ÿ’ธ๐Ÿ’ธ๐Ÿ’ธMost known for its Buy - Now - Pay - Later product, Klarna also has a slew of other products, a consumer-facing shopping app, open banking infrastructure(Plaid & Tink competitor), credit card, and saving account.

B2B, B2C, payment and credit space.

3. Pleo

Latest valuation $1.7B."Pleo takes all the hassle out of company spending by offering smart credit cards paired with smart, beautiful software."Pleo is comparable to US-based Brex and it will be exciting to see how Pleo will expand both geographically and product-wise. More B2B products or Europe-wide expansion?

B2B, company expenses.

4. Trade Republic

Latest valuation $5B+Trade Republic offers mobile-only and commission-free broker service in Europe. Based in Germany but are expanding heavily across Europe. Could be compared to US based neo broker Robin Hood or Avanza/Nordnet here in the Nordics.

B2C, investments.

5. Swan

"Use Swan's APIs to embed white-labeled banking features like accounts, cards, and IBANs into your workflows and UX." Swan is a Banking as a Service(BaaS) provider that enables other companies to quickly and easily launch financial products. Swan position themselves nicely in the growing embedded finance trend and it will be exciting to see the development of this young fintech, in September 2021 they got an $18.7 million investment. Could it be an upcoming fintech unicorn for Creandum?

B2B, BaaS

Bonus:

6. Other notable Creandum fintech investments:

Seon - democratizing fraud fighting \n ๐Ÿ”Bokio - free automated accounting for SMEs \n Tide - business banking service \n Billie - SME financing \n Taxfix - making tax declarations easy \n Osu - seamless instant payments for self employed \n Abacum - financial planning for mid market companies

Note, Creandum usually invests quite early in seed, series A rounds with an initial ticket size of between 200k euro - 8m euro. The investments in this thread are taken from Creandum's own website and might not reflect their whole current fintech portfolio.

Reflections. With picks like Klarna, iZettle(exited), Trade Republic, Pleo, and Pipe all turning into unicorns(over a $1B valuation) it is safe to say Creandum has been pretty good at identifying fintechs with good potential for growth.With bets ranging from consumer credit, investments, company expenses, and alternative financing solutions, Creandum invests broadly in the fintech space. Let's just say they have a good nose for fintech ๐Ÿฆ„ hunting.

]]> jljohan@newsletter.paragraph.com (Nordictechfin) <![CDATA[The secret Nordic fintech unicorn hunter - Creandum]]> https://paragraph.com/@jljohan/the-secret-nordic-fintech-unicorn-hunter-creandum-2 usdsRQ9wxaK7FtD8Dfky Tue, 05 Oct 2021 19:58:37 GMT Creandum is one of the leading Nordic venture investment firms. But did you know that 3 of their fintech portfolio companies turned into unicorns just this spring? ๐Ÿฆ„๐Ÿฆ„๐Ÿฆ„

In this post, we will walk you through what we believe are their top 5 current fintech investments and see if we can identify any takeaways. Let's go!

  1. Pipe

One of the hottest up-and-coming fintechs in the world. Enables SaaS companies to finance themselves by selling future recurring revenues. Since launching mid-2020 Pipe is now valued at $2B. Exciting to see how solutions like Pipe will affect the whole financing space. Pipe enables startups to self-finance and grow without venture investments or traditional credits. See this separate post on how Pipe works under the hood.

B2B, financing/credit space.

2. Klarna

If Pipe is one of the hottest fintech, but Klarna is one of the highest valued. In its latest investments round, Klarna got a $45.6B valuation. ๐Ÿ’ธ๐Ÿ’ธ๐Ÿ’ธMost known for its Buy - Now - Pay - Later product, Klarna also has a slew of other products, a consumer-facing shopping app, open banking infrastructure(Plaid & Tink competitor), credit card, and saving account.

B2B, B2C, payment and credit space.

3. Pleo

Latest valuation $1.7B."Pleo takes all the hassle out of company spending by offering smart credit cards paired with smart, beautiful software."Pleo is comparable to US-based Brex and it will be exciting to see how Pleo will expand both geographically and product-wise. More B2B products or Europe-wide expansion?

B2B, company expenses.

4. Trade Republic

Latest valuation $5B+Trade Republic offers mobile-only and commission-free broker service in Europe. Based in Germany but are expanding heavily across Europe. Could be compared to US based neo broker Robin Hood or Avanza/Nordnet here in the Nordics.

B2C, investments.

5. Swan

"Use Swan's APIs to embed white-labeled banking features like accounts, cards, and IBANs into your workflows and UX." Swan is a Banking as a Service(BaaS) provider that enables other companies to quickly and easily launch financial products. Swan position themselves nicely in the growing embedded finance trend and it will be exciting to see the development of this young fintech, in September 2021 they got an $18.7 million investment. Could it be an upcoming fintech unicorn for Creandum?

B2B, BaaS

Bonus:

6. Other notable Creandum fintech investments:

Seon - democratizing fraud fighting \n ๐Ÿ”Bokio - free automated accounting for SMEs \n Tide - business banking service \n Billie - SME financing \n Taxfix - making tax declarations easy \n Osu - seamless instant payments for self employed \n Abacum - financial planning for mid market companies

Note, Creandum usually invests quite early in seed, series A rounds with an initial ticket size of between 200k euro - 8m euro. The investments in this thread are taken from Creandum's own website and might not reflect their whole current fintech portfolio.

Reflections. With picks like Klarna, iZettle(exited), Trade Republic, Pleo, and Pipe all turning into unicorns(over a $1B valuation) it is safe to say Creandum has been pretty good at identifying fintechs with good potential for growth.With bets ranging from consumer credit, investments, company expenses, and alternative financing solutions, Creandum invests broadly in the fintech space. Let's just say they have a good nose for fintech ๐Ÿฆ„ hunting.

]]> jljohan@newsletter.paragraph.com (Nordictechfin) <![CDATA[The secret Nordic fintech unicorn hunter - Creandum]]> https://paragraph.com/@jljohan/the-secret-nordic-fintech-unicorn-hunter-creandum OrErOxubXhiBS8ckYa4S Tue, 05 Oct 2021 19:58:10 GMT Creandum is one of the leading Nordic venture investment firms. But did you know that 3 of their fintech portfolio companies turned into unicorns just this spring? ๐Ÿฆ„๐Ÿฆ„๐Ÿฆ„

In this post, we will walk you through what we believe are their top 5 current fintech investments and see if we can identify any takeaways. Let's go!

  1. Pipe

One of the hottest up-and-coming fintechs in the world. Enables SaaS companies to finance themselves by selling future recurring revenues. Since launching mid-2020 Pipe is now valued at $2B. Exciting to see how solutions like Pipe will affect the whole financing space. Pipe enables startups to self-finance and grow without venture investments or traditional credits. See this separate post on how Pipe works under the hood.

B2B, financing/credit space.

2. Klarna

If Pipe is one of the hottest fintech, but Klarna is one of the highest valued. In its latest investments round, Klarna got a $45.6B valuation. ๐Ÿ’ธ๐Ÿ’ธ๐Ÿ’ธMost known for its Buy - Now - Pay - Later product, Klarna also has a slew of other products, a consumer-facing shopping app, open banking infrastructure(Plaid & Tink competitor), credit card, and saving account.

B2B, B2C, payment and credit space.

3. Pleo

Latest valuation $1.7B."Pleo takes all the hassle out of company spending by offering smart credit cards paired with smart, beautiful software."Pleo is comparable to US-based Brex and it will be exciting to see how Pleo will expand both geographically and product-wise. More B2B products or Europe-wide expansion?

B2B, company expenses.

4. Trade Republic

Latest valuation $5B+Trade Republic offers mobile-only and commission-free broker service in Europe. Based in Germany but are expanding heavily across Europe. Could be compared to US based neo broker Robin Hood or Avanza/Nordnet here in the Nordics.

B2C, investments.

5. Swan

"Use Swan's APIs to embed white-labeled banking features like accounts, cards, and IBANs into your workflows and UX." Swan is a Banking as a Service(BaaS) provider that enables other companies to quickly and easily launch financial products. Swan position themselves nicely in the growing embedded finance trend and it will be exciting to see the development of this young fintech, in September 2021 they got an $18.7 million investment. Could it be an upcoming fintech unicorn for Creandum?

B2B, BaaS

Bonus:

6. Other notable Creandum fintech investments:

Seon - democratizing fraud fighting ๐Ÿ”Bokio - free automated accounting for SMEsTide - business banking serviceBillie - SME financingTaxfix - making tax declarations easyOsu - seamless instant payments for self employedAbacum - financial planning for mid market companies

Note, Creandum usually invests quite early in seed, series A rounds with an initial ticket size of between 200k euro - 8m euro. The investments in this thread are taken from Creandum's own website and might not reflect their whole current fintech portfolio.

Reflections. With picks like Klarna, iZettle(exited), Trade Republic, Pleo, and Pipe all turning into unicorns(over a $1B valuation) it is safe to say Creandum has been pretty good at identifying fintechs with good potential for growth.With bets ranging from consumer credit, investments, company expenses, and alternative financing solutions, Creandum invests broadly in the fintech space. Let's just say they have a good nose for fintech ๐Ÿฆ„ hunting.

]]> jljohan@newsletter.paragraph.com (Nordictechfin)