The venture capital firm behind Betfair, Skype and Lovefilm has launched a new €350m fund to invest in technology start-ups.
The new fund from Index Ventures will make early stage and seed investments in the technology, biotechnology and clean technology sectors across Europe, the US and Israel, the firm revealed.
The fund, named Index Ventures V, was raised almost entirely from the company’s existing base of limited partners. It follows an
extremely successful year for the firm, which saw Index make substantial returns on several of its investments, such as software company MySQL which was sold to Sun Microsystems for $1bn.
This
is the fifth fund to be raised by Index in the past 10 years, and illustrates its commitment to investing in innovation, the firm said.
Partner Bernard Dallé added that the fund, which was heavily oversubscribed, signified that there was still investment available for the right ideas.
“Over the past 12 years, we have been fortunate enough to work with some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world who have started game-changing companies such as Betfair, Skype, MySQL and GenMab,” he said.
“There are certainly challenges facing many industries right now but, thanks to the ongoing commitment of our limited partners, we can continue to focus on our core strength, that of finding and supporting ambitious, dedicated entrepreneurs.”
Fellow partner, Francesco De Rubertis, revealed the firm’s investment priorities: “On the biotech side, Index is focused on finding the best companies with the strongest pipelines. We are equally interested in very early stage ventures and more mature companies with established proof-of-concept.
“In terms of therapeutic areas, our priorities are oncology, CNS, immunology and inflammation. We continue to see tremendous innovation and development within these areas, driven in part by the ever growing pharmaceutical pipeline deficit.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2009