Welcome, Peter Stilwell!

Since we started Creandum in 2003, we have had the privilege of being early partners in the journeys of some of Europe’s breakout companies, including Spotify, neo4j, Trade Republic, Depop, Factorial and many more. We would not have been able to win the hearts and minds of these entrepreneurs without the work of our operations team, and in particular finance, legal, marketing and platform people who all come together to succeed. Our most important value at Creandum is ‘all one’, as we believe the investment and operations teams work together as a unified team, not separately.

We are delighted to welcome Peter Stilwell to the team as our Chief Operating Officer. Peter has most recently been COO of Coinbase UK as well as leading business operations and strategy at Coinbase Europe. Previously he was a senior manager with Bain & Co in the Bay Area and before that an investment banker at HSBC, based in both London and Hong Kong. Peter has an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. At Creandum, Peter will be responsible for running everything outside of the investment team - in finance, legal, marketing and platform. Peter will be a critical part of the firm's leadership team along with Daniel Blomquist, who will be transitioning from Operating Partner to Fund Partner (more on this later!)

Welcome Peter, we are so happy you have joined us. Tell us about your experience prior to Creandum.

Thanks - I’m really happy to be here! What I’m most excited about this role is that it really combines what I’ve enjoyed most from my previous roles. At HSBC and Bain, I spent a lot of time diving deep into companies across all sorts of industries and identifying what differentiates a really exceptional company from a merely good one. At Coinbase, I was able to get much deeper into the operational side of things, which I really loved. In my almost 4 years there we strengthened the team significantly, expanding into new markets and bolstering Coinbase’s position in the UK. I’m now excited to apply my learnings to Creandum as I jump into all things operational.

What were some of the lessons you learnt from running operations at Coinbase Europe?

Coinbase has a strong presence across Europe, with several offices in key markets. The times when things really clicked were when everyone across countries and functions was aligned on what we needed to achieve and the path for getting there. Building and nurturing strong, agile teams, with a culture of collaboration, innovation and calculated risk-taking helped drive Coinbase’s success in Europe, and in my new role I’ll be equally focused on creating a cohesive, high-performing team that will elevate Creandum to the next level.

You have spent many years in the US and specifically the Bay Area. What’s your view on the European Tech ecosystem and what made you come back?

I moved to the Bay Area from Hong Kong in 2015 and was hugely impressed by the dynamism and entrepreneurial energy that I encountered there from Day 1. It was quite different to anything I had experienced before. Since moving back to Europe in 2020 with Coinbase, I’ve been really impressed with how far the European tech ecosystem has come, and the energy here now feels similar to the Bay Area in terms of the belief in what is possible and the creativity and passion that entrepreneurs are bringing to solve complex problems. This is also reflected in the number of unicorns that are now being created in Europe (over 20% of all unicorns globally in the last 24 months), and I think things are only going to get better.

What made you want to join VC and in particular Creandum?

I had a very clear idea of what I was looking for in my next role - a smart, driven team with a down to earth attitude and a strong reputation in their sector. Over the course of my conversations with the Creandum partners, I quickly realized that Creandum represented exactly that. For the last 20+ years Creandum has proved its quality and I’m looking forward to seeing what this team can go on to achieve.

After raising a fresh €500m from the world’s leading top investors, including the largest university endowments and foundations, Daniel will take up a new position as Fund Partner, focusing specifically on the relationship between us and our LPs, on overall fund management and investment strategy.

Congrats again Peter for joining us - we are so excited to see the work you will do with our best-in-class operations team!