Index Ventures

Index Ventures has raised $2.3bn in new funds—an $800m venture fund and a $1.5 billion growth fund. This capital will be deployed at a pivotal moment for the startup ecosystem, with the rise of: 🧠 Transformative technologies: Rapid advancements in AI and beyond are reshaping industries 🌍 Global talent: Deeper, more diverse pools of expertise 📈 Proven playbooks: Established strategies for hyper-growth These factors are converging and compounding to create unprecedented opportunities for founders around the world. Our thanks go out to our LPs for their continuous support, as well as to the founders past, present and future who choose to partner with us. Your trust and success have made this possible. Here’s a taste of what you’ve achieved so far: 🚀 108 Index-backed reached a $1bn valuation 🎉 23 surpassed a valuation of $10bn 🌐 57 have IPO’d 💪 200,000 jobs created Thank you! We're excited to forge new relationships and back the next generation of iconic startups. https://lnkd.in/gAGC5sqQ

Congrats to Jean-Charles and the team at Alan on their €173m raise at €4bn valuation!  Today, 650,000 people are using Alan’s one-of-a-kind holistic health hub. To mark this milestone, I’ve written a blog exploring the key factors behind their success, which include: 1/ Building a vertically integrated model that brings health to where people are. 2/ Evolving from health insurance innovators to a comprehensive health hub, offering telemedicine, health tracking and tailored health guidance, as well as wellbeing programs spanning mental health support, managing back pain, nutrition, physical activity and more. 3/ Empowering people to actively manage their own health, moving beyond traditional, reactive care models. 4/ Leveraging AI to deliver personalised, accessible care. 5/ Prioritising preventive care over reactive intervention, resulting in better outcomes and lower costs. 6/ Combining a high-tech, high-touch approach that’s efficient, empathetic, and patient-centred. It’s been exciting to work alongside Alan since their Series A in 2018 and watch their bold vision of redesigning healthcare delivery become a reality. Congrats from Julia and I, and the whole Index Ventures team. Onwards! 

The bar for SaaS is sky high. Strong startups like Wiz are setting new benchmarks for the industry, driving ARR goalposts and demonstrating measured but massive growth. As The Wall Street Journal reporter Steve Rosenbush shared: “In a market where a big exit is elusive, startups will need to cultivate strong management and steadfast investors as never before.” Index Partner Nina Achadjian spoke with Steve about how SaaS businesses are responding to increased pressure to shift burn rates and achieve a more competitive ARR. 📰  Read more: https://lnkd.in/g77M6kFu 

An insanely small number of VCs have had 1 decacorn. Shardul Shah has had 2 companies worth over $20BN and his track is off the charts. He has led rounds for: 🐶 Datadog: $36BN market cap ☁️ Wiz: $23BN valuation 🛡️ Coalition: $5BN valuation 🔐 Duo Security: $2.35BN acquisition 🚫 Expel: $1BN valuation —----------------------------------- Total: $67.35BN —----------------------------------- My 7 🔥 lessons from his 16 years @ Index Ventures 👇 1. Why Growth Investing is the Same as Early Stage Investing - Whether early or at growth, it is all about the team. - The right team will find adjacent market opportunities over time. - This applies even when you’re paying high prices for late-stage companies. 2. The Sin of Omission and Three Core Lessons - The three biggest lessons on missing $BN+ companies: 1. Don’t be cute on price 2. Don’t overthink it 3. Don’t underestimate exceptional founders. - The sins of omission are much greater than the sins of commission. 3. Why Every VC Meeting Should be 30 Mins Not One Hour  - You probably already know the answer in the first 15 minutes. - Now all my meetings are 30 minutes by default. - It is a huge time saver. 4. TAM is a Trap  - The biggest public companies today all underestimated their TAM. - Their market caps today are bigger than what they thought the TAM would be. - The best founders find & expand market opportunities. 5. Why the Best Founders are Not the Best Fundraisers - Olivier and Alexis were not great fundraisers when we invested in Datadog’s Series A. - They evolved into tremendous fundraisers over time. - The best founders do not need to start off as great fundraisers. 6. Upside Requirements for Growth Stage Investing - We noticed our first growth fund had a power law. - Now we look for 5x plus upside. - There is no such thing as a safe 2x. 7. Why Wiz Was Right Not To Sell - They have insane growth & productivity across multiple segments & geographies. - They have an incredible team with Dali joining as COO. (links in comments) #founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup #seed #funding

📈 When is the right time to hire your first Marketing Manager, CFO, or VP Product? As a startup founder, knowing when to bring in key talent is crucial for scaling successfully. 💫Join us today from 12:30 - 13:30 BST for an online session where our VP of Talent, Isaiah Baril-Dore will join Anthony Rose, CEO & Co-Founder of SeedLegals to showcase TeamPlan – our free-to-use benchmarking tool based on 200,000+ employee profiles from startups like Stripe, Spotify, Airbnb & Figma. 🔑What they will cover: - How to time your key hires for each growth stage - Best practices for attracting & retaining top talent - Common hiring mistakes to avoid 👉Sign up here: https://lu.ma/lc1dr9z3

Despite a volatile year for SaaS, Index Partner Paris Heymann believes the future remains bright. Three observations on one of venture’s most active categories: 🏡 At $250 billion, SaaS is still a cottage industry relative to the $110 trillion global economy. SaaS continues to be an attractive way for tech buyers to improve their businesses, increase revenues, and decrease costs. The category is expected to continue growing much faster than global GDP. 📈 AI represents opportunity for SaaS. As AI becomes more adept at augmenting or replacing human-led tasks, new, higher ACV pricing models may emerge.    🥇 We are in a period of “less but better.” Consolidation means there are fewer winning SaaS companies, but those which are successful have grown even larger than top companies in prior cohorts. For more, see Paris’s piece in The New Stack 👇 https://lnkd.in/ggYYvsrC

“Don’t be cute on price. Don’t overthink it. Don’t underestimate fantastic founders.” Index Partner Shardul Shah joins Harry Stebbings on 20VC to share Index’s top three lessons learned across nearly three decades of investing, his POV on what you need to be the best board member, and thoughts on the future of venture. 📺 Tune in for more: YouTube: https://lnkd.in/g7vsWsE3 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gHD8ci6m

A new wave of AI tools is emerging to transform back-office workflows, marking a shift towards “services as software.” Index's Hannah Seal talks to Vidya Peters, Ross McNairn, James Ding, Sam Ross, Andrew Cooke and others to explore how AI is reshaping the legal, audit, tax, accounting and compliance professions, with insights such as: 🚀 Founders are ripping up the rulebook that says that the professional services industry is too complex, too low-margin, too operationally intensive to scale a startup. AI has changed the game. 🧠 Amid talent wars in legal and a brain-drain in audit, new AI tools are being released onto a volatile talent market, revitalizing professions 🫁 AI is breathing life into legal workflows that haven’t changed in 20 years, despite facing challenges in adoption ⚖️ The balance between empowering and replacing employees with AI in the professional services industry 💪 The opportunity for founders building AI that fits naturally into existing workflows, instead of requiring large firms to fundamentally change the way they work https://lnkd.in/eWtWuxkz

Heading to San Mateo for SaaStr's Annual Summit this week? Don’t miss Index Partner Paris Heymann's advice for effectively scaling teams from 0 to 1,000 in his Super Braindate session this Thursday. Find more details on the SaaStr portal or here 👇 https://lnkd.in/gANe-sAf