Brief History

Index Ventures originated as the Swiss bond-trading company Index Securities, which was launched in 1976 by Gerald Rimer. In 1992, Rimer’s son Neil joined the company and helped his father to start a technology investment department. This new arm of the company would eventually evolve into Index Ventures, an independent entity. In 1996, Neil Rimer, Giuseppe Zocco, and David Rimer officially launched Index Ventures after raising a pilot fund of $17 million. In 1998, they raised an additional $180 million. In 2002 Index Ventures opened their headquarters in London, England and in 2011 in San Francisco, United States.

In 2018, the New York Times listed four of the nine investment partners at Index Ventures as some of the top venture capitalists in the world. The list featured Neil and Danny Rimer, Jan Hammer, and Mike Volpi. Also in 2018, Jan Hammer and Neil Rimer were featured on the Forbes Global Midas List as top venture capitalists.

Geographically

Index Ventures is an international company with headquarters in both San Francisco and in London. Index Ventures has also invested in companies across the globe, mainly in the United States and Europe, but also in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Significant Investments

Index Ventures has raised several major venture funds including:

• Bird – A California-based micromobility company launched in 2017. Bird Company operates shared electric scooters in more than 100 cities across the globe. Index Ventures has participated in Series A and B of early funding.
• Flutter Entertainment – A merger between Betfair and Paddy Power, this company is a digital gambling company that operates the largest betting exchange in the world. Index invested in Betfair prior to the merge.
• Blue Bottle Coffee – An American coffee roaster and retailer that was acquired by Nestlé for $425 million.
• Deliveroo – An online food delivery service launched in 2013 in the United Kingdom. Deliveroo now operates around the world. Other investors in this exiting start up include Novator Partners, Amazon and DST Global. 

Index Ventures in the News

In October 2019, Tech Crunch reported on the investment made by Index Ventures into Quill, a workplace communication solution. Earlier in the month, Tech Crunch also reported on the $30 million raised in a Series B funding initiative led by Index Ventures for Duffel, an advanced travel platform. Also in October 2019, the PE Hub Network reported that Index Ventures led a round of Series B funding in which Instabase, a platform company for business applications, raised $105 million. In February 2019, Silicon Canals reported on $34 million raised for Lunchr, a French startup that provides digital meal cards for corporate lunches at small companies.