Index Ventures Announces Euro 400 Million Growth Fund

Firm Adds New Partners with Growth-Stage Focus

LONDON, GENEVA and JERSEY, United Kingdom, Jan. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Index
Ventures today announced the closing of the euro 400 million Index Ventures
Growth I L.P. The fund is the first of its kind raised by a European venture
capital firm and was formed to address the market opportunity created by the
maturation of Europe's start-up industry and the movement of traditional
late-stage investors into larger deal sizes in both the technology and life
science sectors. The new fund will complement the firm's venture capital
fund, Index Ventures IV L.P., which will continue to focus primarily on seed
and early-stage investments.
The growth investment team, which will be fully integrated into the
existing investment team, will be led by: Index co-founder Giuseppe Zocco;
Dominique Vidal, previously CEO of Yahoo! Europe and co-founder of Kelkoo; and
Guido Magni, formerly the Global Head of Medical Science, Pharmaceutical
Division, F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. Basel, Switzerland.
"Index has been investing in European start-ups since 1996 so we've had
front row seats to watch the industry expand and mature," said Giuseppe Zocco.
"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 euro 20 million and
euro 50 million in European-based companies. The team will also selectively
consider companies in Eastern Europe and the U.S. that have plans to expand
internationally. Technology and life science companies are the primary focus,
with media, retail and green technology opportunities also being 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," said Dominique Vidal. "In many of these cases, investing
additional capital and time in the business will result in a much greater
long-term payoff 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 Zappala, who has been with Index since 2005.
"Index has a proven track record of finding and investing in industry
changing businesses. 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," said Guido Magni.
For more background on Dominique Vidal and Guido Magni, please visit:
http://www.indexventures.com/team
ABOUT INDEX VENTURES
Index Ventures is a leading European venture capital firm active in
technology venture investing since 1996. The firm is dedicated to helping top
entrepreneurial teams in the Information Technology and Life Science sectors
build their companies into market defining global leaders. The firm has
offices in Geneva, London and Jersey and focuses on investments from seed
through growth stage companies. Recent exits include Skype (the pioneering
communications company acquired by eBay); MySQL (the world's most popular open
source database recently acquired by Sun), Last.fm (the world's largest social
music platform, recently acquired by CBS) and BioXell (BIOX, floated on the
SWX in 2007). For more information, please visit http://www.indexventures.com.
SOURCE Index Ventures

Sayula Kirby of Index Ventures, + 44 207 154 2009, or Diane Schreiber of Spark
PR, +1-415-321-1871, for Index Ventures