Index Ventures was founded in 1996 in Geneva by Neil Rimer, David Rimer, and Giuseppe Zocco, with an early thesis centred on backing European technology companies at a time when most institutional venture capital was concentrated in Silicon Valley. The firm expanded to London and later San Francisco, positioning itself as a transatlantic investor capable of supporting founders across both geographies.
Several of its early bets became defining proof points for European venture as a category. Index backed Skype, MySQL, and Last.fm, among others, before those exits demonstrated that European-founded technology businesses could achieve exits at scale. Later investments in companies including Dropbox, Roblox, Robinhood, and Adyen extended the firm's reputation across consumer, fintech, and infrastructure software. The Adyen relationship is particularly notable: Index was an early backer of the Dutch payments processor, which listed on Euronext Amsterdam in 2018 at a valuation that made it one of the largest European technology IPOs of that era.
Today Index operates across early and growth stages, with offices in San Francisco and London. The firm manages multiple fund vehicles covering seed through to later-stage positions, and has built a reputation for willingness to lead rounds rather than participate passively.
For operators and founders, Index matters as a signal of how European venture capital professionalised and internationalised. Its trajectory, from a Geneva-based regional fund to a firm with credible deal flow on both sides of the Atlantic, reflects the broader maturation of the European startup ecosystem. Watching which sectors Index prioritises in successive fund cycles offers a reasonable proxy for where institutional conviction is forming in early-stage technology.
