Index Ventures

Index’s roots are in Geneva, Switzerland. We know that large Swiss government organizations are generally not “early adopters” of technology. So, when the folks at Zuora told us that the Touring Club of Switzerland had adopted them for their subscription billing services, we knew something was up…. Today, we are delighted to announce our Index Growth investment is Zuora.

We’ve been looking for the elephant in the room for some time. We knew he was there, but we just couldn’t find him. It’s clear that he is now here and his name is Hortonworks. As such, we are very excited to announce today that Index Ventures has made an investment in Hortonworks.

Observing the venture industry over the past 15 years, one notices that successful startups have often been sold before reaching their full potential, especially in Europe.

In some cases an early exit is appropriate. Certain startups should be sold in the early years of their success if, for example, the size of the opportunity turns out to be more limited than originally anticipated, or when management and investors have diverging views about the future potential for the business.

Today as we announce the news that we’re launching Index’s second growth equity fund, a new €500m fund to invest in fast-growing businesses, it seems like a good chance to take stock and give a little context.

One area where we are committed to enhance our proposition to entrepreneurs and invest more time and money is the Nordic and Baltic area. Index Ventures has already invested a disproportionately high share of funds and time here relative to the size of the markets. Here we reflect on what Index has been up to in the region, and just why it creates so many innovative and successful tech companies.

Having noticed that Melbourne seemed to be popping up as a hot-spot over the last few years with the emergence of Atlassian and 99designs, I asked Steve Lipchin, a business school friend who recently moved there from South Africa, to let me know what companies he thought we should look at. A few weeks later, Steve put me in touch with Kaggle.

A huge win for all

Hats off to the founders, AB and Hitesh, for a unique product vision and superb technical execution. Congratulations on a great outcome to Ben Golub and the entire Gluster team in Bangalore and Mountain View!

The ubiquity of Facebook, Twitter (soon possibly Google+) is having a dramatic impact on how businesses engage with customers.

Today businesses must not only continue to be on top of customer interactions across traditional channels (phone, email, chat, forums, etc) but must now also carefully monitor and react to developments about their products and services across social networks.

Just a short note to offer big congratulations to the amazing team at The Gifts Project on their acquisition by eBay.

We’ve had a relatively short relationship since we were lucky enough to have been introduced 12 months ago by Yossi Vardi in Tel Aviv, but it’s been an absolute pleasure and privilege to work with Ron, Erez, Matan, Maya and Eyal as they set about defining the landscape for social commerce from a small but killer office above an awesome restaurant on what has become the most famous road in Israel in the last 12 months.

OZON’s announcement of the largest ever investment in a Russian eCommerce company marks a fantastic achievement for the whole team, and all of us here at Index are very proud to be playing a small role in this remarkable story.