Credo Ventures
Credo Ventures is a Prague-based venture capital firm that leads pre-seed rounds of $1M-$5M for technical founders from Central and Eastern Europe and its global diaspora, with five fund vintages totaling $88M in the latest and 100+ portfolio companies backed.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2009
- HeadquartersPrague, Czechia
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Credo Ventures does
Credo Ventures is a Prague-based venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Ondrej Bartos and Jan Habermann that writes the first institutional cheque for technical founders from Central and Eastern Europe and the CEE diaspora, leading pre-seed rounds with $1M-$5M tickets. The firm operates two complementary fund strategies: the flagship pre-seed fund series (currently Credo Stage 5, a $88M / €74.85M fifth vintage closed March 2026, planning ~30 portfolio companies) and Credo Crossover, a hybrid growth-stage fund launched in 2022 that invests via secondaries, primaries, and select public opportunities.
The firm has backed 100+ portfolio companies across five vintages and stakes claim to leading the pre-seed of both CEE decacorns — UiPath (co-led pre-seed, IPO at $35B within 5 years) and ElevenLabs (led pre-seed, $11B last-round valuation within 4 years). Active deployment is concentrated in AI-heavy and deep-tech categories — voice AI, AI agents, agentic science platforms, vibe-coding devtools, AI fraud detection, defense technology, space, and energy — alongside a long tail of category-leading software companies.
Revenue is generated through standard VC economics: management fees (~2%) on committed capital across five fund vintages, plus carried interest on exits. The 14-person team across Prague and Kraków combines operator-investors (Twisto co-founder Lukas Hurych, technical founders among the partners) with a dedicated Tech Partner for deep technical due diligence. Marketing relies on an 'open funnel' (no deck, no warm intro required), the firm's long-form CEE thesis manifesto, Forbes Midas List credibility, and syndicate relationships with Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Bessemer, and other tier-one global funds.
Credo Ventures firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Credo Ventures
- Legal name
- Credo Ventures
- Website
- https://credoventures.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2009
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Credo Ventures is a Prague-based venture capital firm that leads pre-seed rounds of $1M-$5M for technical founders from Central and Eastern Europe and its global diaspora, with five fund vintages totaling $88M in the latest and 100+ portfolio companies backed.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Credo Ventures industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Venture Capital
- NAICS
- Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940), Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (52394)
- SIC
- Investment Advice (6282)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Early-Stage Venture Capital (Pre-Seed/Seed) (FSANAAAA)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Venture Capital Fund-of-Funds (FSANAGAC)
Keywords
Where Credo Ventures is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Prague
- HQ country
- Czechia
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices2 records
Markets served
Credo Ventures business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Venture capital fund management (management fees + carried interest): Credo Ventures operates as an early-stage venture capital firm running multiple fund vintages (currently Credo Stage 5 / Fund V). Revenue is generated through traditional VC economics: recurring management fees on committed/invested capital across fund vintages, plus carried interest (carry) on realized exits from portfolio companies. Returns are driven by exits from 100+ portfolio companies across funds, including decacorn outcomes such as UiPath ($35B IPO) and ElevenLabs ($11B last-round valuation / $6.6B tender).
- Credo Crossover Fund (hybrid growth-stage fund): Founded in 2022, Credo Crossover is a hybrid fund that invests in breakout tech companies through growth-stage secondaries, unique-access primaries, and select public tech opportunities. This generates revenue via fund management fees and carry on later-stage investments, complementing the early-stage pre-seed/seed strategy.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Pay-as-you-go | Standard pre-seed/seed lead cheques of $1M-$5M, leading rounds from pre-seed onwards. |
| Other | Pay-as-you-go | Fund V (Credo Stage 5): $88M / €74.85M first-close vehicle, ~30 portfolio companies planned. |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels7 records
Credo Ventures product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Credo Ventures is a Central and Eastern Europe-focused early-stage venture capital firm that writes the first institutional pre-seed cheque ($1M–$5M) for technical founders building in CEE or from the CEE diaspora. The firm operates a flagship Stage fund series (currently Credo Stage 5, an $88M vehicle) and a parallel hybrid growth-stage fund (Credo Crossover, since 2022), generating revenue through management fees and carried interest across more than 100 portfolio companies to date.
Product overview
Credo Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that operates a unified investment platform from CEE (Central and Eastern Europe), offering two complementary fund families that together form a continuum from earliest pre-seed through growth/late-stage investing. The flagship pre-seed fund series — most recently Credo Stage 5 (Fund V), an $88 million vehicle that writes the first institutional cheque of $1-5 million for CEE technical founders and diaspora — sits alongside Credo Crossover, a hybrid growth-stage fund launched in 2022 that invests in breakout tech via secondaries, primaries, and select public opportunities. Together these two fund families (plus the four predecessor Stage funds) constitute the firm's product set, delivered alongside hands-on operational support to portfolio companies rather than as a SaaS product.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Credo Crossover: Hybrid fund strategy launched in 2022 that invests in breakout tech companies through growth-stage secondaries, unique-access primaries, and select public tech opportunities.
- Credo Stage 5 (CS5)
Products and services
- Credo Stage 5 Fund (Fund V) Pre-seed flagship venture capital fund that writes the first institutional cheque of $1M-$5M for technical founders building in CEE and its global diaspora. Plans approximately 30 portfolio companies.
- Credo Crossover Fund Hybrid growth-stage venture capital fund that invests in breakout tech companies through growth-stage secondaries, unique-access primaries, and select public tech opportunities.
Companies that use Credo Ventures
Customer profileNamed customers15 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
Credo Ventures technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Credo Ventures partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
18 partnerships are on record, tiered major, flagship, core and minor.
- SuperPlanemajorCredo Ventures led SuperPlane's €2.28M pre-seed funding round. SuperPlane is a Serbian developer tooling startup building an open-source control plane for AI agents, founded in 2025 by CEO Darko Fabijan and CPO Marko Anastasov. The capital will accelerate product development, expand the open-source community, and launch a hosted version of the platform. First Momentum Ventures and several angel investors also participated.
- PicogridmajorCredo Ventures is an existing investor in Picogrid, a California-based defense technology company that closed a $45M Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Picogrid builds hardware-enabled software that connects sensors, unmanned systems, and digital platforms across 100+ defense systems (including Skydio, Northrop Grumman, Echodyne, CX2, Neros). Other investors in the round: Washington Harbour, GSBackers, Initialized Capital, Starburst Ventures.
- TheoremamajorCredo Ventures participated in Theorema's 70 million korunas (~$3.3M) pre-seed round alongside Kaya VC, Tilia Impact Ventures, Amino Collective, and i&i Bio. Theorema is an AI startup by Czech founders Filip Doušek and Hynek Walner (who previously sold Stories to Workday for hundreds of millions of korunas), building an agentic AI platform to manage lab instruments, search scientific papers, and design experiments in real time. Already collaborating with ETH Zurich, Charles University, and the Czech Academy of Sciences.
- Duvo (duvo.ai)majorCredo Ventures participated in Duvo's $15M seed funding round led by Index Ventures, with Northzone, Puzzle Ventures, and angels from Wiz, Stripe, and Zapier also participating. Duvo is a Prague- and New York-based AI-native automation platform for retail and consumer goods operations (co-founded by Rohlik founder Tomáš Čupr). The platform reportedly reduces manual work by ~40% across SAP, email, supplier portals, and spreadsheets, with deployments at multi-billion-dollar retail and FMCG groups.
- Delta GreenmajorCredo Ventures participated in Delta Green's €2M funding round alongside Tilia Impact Ventures and Purple Ventures. Delta Green is a Prague-based energy startup whose platform turns European homes into virtual power batteries by managing energy consumption, discharging home batteries, and integrating rooftop solar to optimize costs and support renewable energy.
- Resistant AImajorCredo Ventures is a portfolio investor in Resistant AI, which raised $25M in Series B funding to empower AI agents to fight fraud and financial crime.
- SupernovamajorCredo Ventures is a portfolio investor in Supernova, a Prague-based AI-powered platform for enterprise product teams ('vibe-coding'). Supernova raised a $9.2M Series A led by Taiwania Capital.
- UphealmajorCredo Ventures is a portfolio investor in Upheal, an AI-powered platform reducing clinician burnout, which raised $10M in Series A funding led by Headline.
- AxoflowmajorCredo Ventures is a portfolio investor in Axoflow, a Hungary-founded cybersecurity startup that raised $7M in seed funding led by EBRD Venture Capital. Axoflow builds a security data curation pipeline that improves data quality, reduces SIEM costs, and enhances security operations for enterprises.
- CeramajorCredo Ventures is a portfolio investor in Cera, a UK in-home healthcare provider that raised $150M to scale its AI platform for care delivery.
- WabimajorCredo invested in the pre-seed of Wabi, the new venture from Eugenia Kuyda (founder of Replika AI, which pioneered AI companions). Wabi is building a platform to create, share, and remix personalised mini-apps in minutes. $20M pre-seed round raised (Nov 2025).
- VlayermajorCredo Ventures is a portfolio investor in Vlayer, which raised $10M in pre-seed funding to build Ethereum's 'Solidity 2.0' infrastructure. Founded by Hubert and Marek.
- Kurs OrbitalmajorCredo Ventures is a portfolio investor in Kurs Orbital, a satellite servicing tech startup led by the former head of Ukraine's space agency. Kurs Orbital raised $4M in new funding.
- ElevenLabsflagshipCredo led the 'non-obvious' pre-seed round in ElevenLabs, a Polish-founded voice AI company building 'well before it became a category'. The company grew from zero to a decacorn in less than 4 years, reaching an $11B last-round valuation (per homepage) and a $6.6B employee tender offer (Sept 2025). ElevenLabs serves 41% of Fortune 500 companies and reached $200M ARR by August 2025. Credo's pre-seed bet is the firm's signature recent outcome.
- UiPathflagshipCredo co-led UiPath's pre-seed round at the early pivot from an IT services company to a product company in the RPA category. UiPath IPO'd within 5 years at a $35B valuation and became the category leader in Robotic Process Automation. Credo's deep partnership with the UiPath founders is one of the firm's defining track-record outcomes and a centerpiece of its brand as the fund of choice for CEE founders.
- Credo portfolio (84 companies since 2009, per Portfolio page)coreBeyond the named highlights, Credo's portfolio page lists 84 portfolio companies including Bugprove, Goodlegal, Assetario, Talkbase, Munch.so, Stock Story, Manta, Waymark, SignAll, GoAvio, Represent, Apiary, DataFeedWatch, Klick2Contact, Cognitive Security, Brainient, Contact, plus reference to past companies Pricefx and Productboard.
- Forbes Europe Midas List (Ondrej Bartos, Dec 2024)coreCredo's recognition on the Forbes Europe Midas List functions as a brand partnership signaling top-tier deal sourcing and credibility to founders and LPs across Europe.
- CEE VC Summit (panel partnership with J&T Ventures, Orbit Capital, BrightCap Ventures, Kibo Ventures)minorCredo Ventures partners participate alongside J&T Ventures, Orbit Capital, BrightCap Ventures, and Kibo Ventures in CEE VC Summit panels focused on liquidity, DPI, and the CEE startup ecosystem. Functions as a regional ecosystem thought-leadership partnership.
Scale indicators14 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights7 records
Credo Ventures competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Kaya VC: Czech/European early-stage VC that co-invested with Credo in Theorema's pre-seed; similar thesis of backing technical CEE founders at earliest stages with comparable cheque sizes.
- J&T Ventures: Slovakia-based VC focused on CEE pre-seed and seed rounds; co-panelist with Credo at CEE VC Summit discussions on CEE startup ecosystem liquidity and DPI.
- First Momentum Ventures: CEE early-stage VC that co-invested alongside Credo in SuperPlane's pre-seed; similar pre-seed focus on technical CEE founders.
- Tilia Impact Ventures: Czech impact-focused VC that co-invested with Credo in Delta Green's €2M round and Theorema's pre-seed; overlapping CEE early-stage deal flow with thematic specialization.
- BrightCap Ventures: CEE-focused early-stage VC participating alongside Credo in CEE VC Summit panels; comparable pre-seed/seed strategy across the CEE region.
- Orbit Capital: CEE-focused early-stage VC that appeared alongside Credo at CEE VC Summit panels; comparable pre-seed/seed activity in the CEE region.
Regional players
- Kibo Ventures: Spain-based VC with growing CEE exposure, participating in CEE VC Summit panels alongside Credo on liquidity and DPI; broader Iberian + CEE early-stage focus.
Broad incumbents
- Speedinvest: European early-stage VC with multiple sector-focused funds; broader geographic footprint than Credo but overlapping pre-seed/seed thesis for technical founders, including in CEE.
- Earlybird Venture Capital: Established European VC with CEE exposure and pre-seed through growth funds; comparable underwriting approach for technical founders but at materially larger AUM scale.
- LocalGlobe: UK-based pre-seed and seed investor with comparable 'lead pre-seed' philosophy and similar cheque sizes ($1M-$5M); broader geographic remit but overlapping founder profile.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Credo Ventures social profiles
Digital presenceCredo Ventures financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Credo Ventures leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles15 records
Credo Ventures subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries1 record
Credo Ventures funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Credo Ventures M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments159 records
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Credo Ventures
What does Credo Ventures do?
Credo Ventures is a Central and Eastern Europe-focused early-stage venture capital firm that writes the first institutional pre-seed cheque ($1M–$5M) for technical founders building in CEE or from the CEE diaspora. The firm operates a flagship Stage fund series (currently Credo Stage 5, an $88M vehicle) and a parallel hybrid growth-stage fund (Credo Crossover, since 2022), generating revenue through management fees and carried interest across more than 100 portfolio companies to date.
Is Credo Ventures a public or private company?
Credo Ventures is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Credo Ventures founded?
Credo Ventures was founded in 2009. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Credo Ventures based?
Credo Ventures is headquartered in Prague, Czechia, in the Europe region.
How does Credo Ventures make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Venture capital fund management (management fees + carried interest) is the primary driver. The others are credo Crossover Fund (hybrid growth-stage fund).
Who are Credo Ventures's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Kaya VC, J&T Ventures, First Momentum Ventures, Tilia Impact Ventures, BrightCap Ventures and Orbit Capital. Kibo Ventures is listed as a regional player. Broad incumbents are Speedinvest, Earlybird Venture Capital and LocalGlobe.
Does Credo Ventures have an API?
No public API is recorded for Credo Ventures.
What industry is Credo Ventures in?
Credo Ventures's product category is Venture Capital. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSANAAAA, Early-Stage Venture Capital (Pre-Seed/Seed), with a secondary code of FSANAGAC, Venture Capital Fund-of-Funds. Its NAICS code is 523940 and its SIC code is 6282.