Geneva-based venture capital firm Index Ventures has announced the closing of the EUR400m Index Ventures Growth I fund, established to address the market opportunity created by the maturin
Geneva-based venture capital firm Index Ventures has announced the closing of the EUR400m Index Ventures Growth I fund, established to address the market opportunity created by the maturing of Europe’s start-up industry and the movement of traditional late-stage investors into larger deal sizes in the technology and life science sectors.
The new fund will complement the firm’s venture capital fund, Index Ventures IV, which will continue to focus primarily on seed and early-stage investments. The growth investment team will be led by Index co-founder Giuseppe Zocco, Dominique Vidal, previously chief executive of Yahoo! Europe and co-founder of Kelkoo, and Guido Magni, formerly global head of medical science with the pharmaceutical division of Hoffman-La Roche in Basel.
‘Index has been investing in European start-ups since 1996, so we’ve had front-row seats to watch the industry expand and mature,’ Zocco says. ‘There is now a critical mass of companies that have the potential to be market leaders and make a global impact. With the growth fund, we have the ability to find and support these companies, helping them get to the next level.’
The fund expects to make investments of between EUR20m and EUR50m in companies in western Europe and will also selectively consider companies in eastern Europe and the US that have plans to expand internationally. Technology and life science companies are the primary focus, with media, retail and green technology opportunities also considered.
‘Our goal with the Index Ventures Growth Fund is to partner with entrepreneurs who have built successful, quickly-growing businesses that have reached a stage when they are considering strategic alternatives including being acquired,’ Vidal says.
‘In many of these cases, investing additional capital and time in the business will result in a much greater long-term pay-off and allow the entrepreneur to continue growing his or her company into a market leader.’
Vidal and Magni bring decades of operating experience to Index, supplementing Zocco’s long history with the firm. The team will also include Tony Zappalà, who has been with Index since 2005.
‘Index has a proven track record of finding and investing in industry changing businesses,’ Magni says. ‘The new fund gives us the ability to continue working with successful early-stage companies that have become growth opportunities, leveraging the knowledge, methodology and network across both the venture and growth teams.’
