$200m seed fund to help start-ups scale ‘from inception to IPO’

9 Apr 2021

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Index Ventures’ new seed fund aims to encourage collaboration across the seed ecosystem and help founders with recruitment, early adoption and more.

Early-stage start-ups around the world could soon benefit from a dedicated seed fund worth $200m. Index Ventures has designed the fund to be “highly collaborative”, encouraging co-investing with other global seed funds, solo general partners and super angels.

This $200m fund, called Index Origin, brings the total amount raised by Index Ventures over the past year to $2.2bn.

Index Ventures, which is headquartered between London and San Francisco, is one of the most prominent VCs in Europe. It has been an early backer of tech companies including Deliveroo, Revolut, Robinhood and Wise, and backed Irish infosec companies Evervault and Tines at their early stages.

Index partner Nina Achadjian said the new fund will give early-stage founders a platform that “scales with them, from inception to IPO”.

“Right now, as an early-stage founder, you’re making a trade-off between a multi-stage venture fund that invests in seed or a dedicated seed fund,” Achadjian said. “By offering seed-specific resources and by encouraging collaboration and co-investment with seed funds and solo general partners, we want to set up founders for success from day one.”

Index Ventures said it will support founders with recruitment, early-adopting customers and access to its network of founders, operators and mentors.

The firm’s team will work alongside founders to develop hiring strategies, its industry connections will give founders access to decision-makers at well-known companies, and its network will introduce them to experts across sales, product, finance, operations and more.

Achadjian stated in a Q&A that “there’s never been a better time to start a company”.

“Our behaviours as consumers and workers are changing and even the most archaic industries are realising they need to run their businesses with the latest, state-of-the-art technology,” she said. “It is therefore no surprise that there are more companies being started today than ever before.

“Talent and ideas exist everywhere. We have backed entrepreneurs all over the world, although we tend to have a greater focus in the US and Europe. With the launch of a dedicated transatlantic seed fund, we have increased the amount of capital available to seed-stage start-ups, offered tailored support and counsel, and – in partnership with seed investors – provided entrepreneurs the best chance at success.”

Lisa Ardill was careers editor at Silicon Republic until June 2021

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