Index Ventures today launched its new £350 million early stage technology fund, which will invest in European and Israeli companies "looking to build global category leaders".
Index Ventures said that the new fund is the final piece of £1 billion of new capital raised in the last 12 months to invest in early stage and growth technology as well as life sciences companies. "Every week our investment team spends time in cities like Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Madrid, Milan, Moscow, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Stockholm, and Tel Aviv and we are fortunate to meet amazing entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs are driven by the incredible opportunities they see to change the status quo. They see a world in which few industries are safe from transformation when you combine the mainstream reach and relative capital efficiency of the Internet, mobile and cloud computing with disruptive new business models like marketplaces and SaaS."
Index Ventures is optimistic about Europe, despite the current crisis on the continent, saying, While technology adoption is increasingly rapid and worldwide, we continue to believe that Europe will be fertile ground to discover and help develop world beating innovations. In fact, even while Europe is facing massive macroeconomic challenges, at the same time we have seen very clearly that European startups are coming of age."
Index Ventures was founded in 2006 and manages $4.7 billion. Originally based in Switzerland, it now has offices in London and San Francisco. It uses the Eurovision and UEFA definition of Europe, which includes Israel. 40% of its current portfolio companies are in North America, 10% are Israeli, including OpTier Ltd., MyHeritage Ltd., NovoCure Ltd., Soluto Ltd.,Worklight Ltd., and Zend Technologies Ltd.