Fundraising Unlocked - Investor Deep Dive
Index
Ventures
The complete
founder's
playbook
$15B+ raised. 108 unicorns. 662 companies backed. Everything you need to know before approaching Index - how they think, what they back, who decides, and exactly how to position yourself.
$15B+
Total capital raised
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Fundraising Unlocked · Investor Deep Dive
Index Ventures
The complete
founder's
playbook
Everything you need to know before approaching Index, how they think, what they've backed, who decides, how their biggest deals actually happened, and exactly how to position yourself. Built from public data, portfolio analysis, partner interviews, and 13 years on both sides of the table.
$15B+Total capital raised
662Companies invested
108Unicorns created
57IPOs
Chapter 1
Who Index actually is, and why it matters
Founded in 1996 by Neil Rimer, David Rimer, and Giuseppe Zocco, Index Ventures started as the investment arm of a Swiss bond-trading firm. Today it's one of the most influential venture firms in the world, with permanent hubs in London, San Francisco, Geneva, New York, and Tel Aviv, spanning 10 time zones and 24 of the world's 30 most vibrant startup ecosystems.
But what actually makes Index different from the other Tier 1 firms is their "one fund, one team" model. Unlike firms that hand off companies between separate seed, venture, and growth teams, the same Index partner who backs you at seed stays with you through IPO. No handoffs. No re-selling your story internally. No junior associate inheriting your relationship.
"90% of our time is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs grow. If you just get something passed on to you by a colleague and you don't understand its history, the why or where it came from, we don't think you can give as valuable a product to founders."
, Mike Volpi, Partner, Index Ventures
This has profound implications for how you pitch them. When an Index partner champions you, they're committing to years of partnership, not just a deal memo. That first meeting carries enormous weight.
Gian's Insider Take
The "one team" model means your first meeting with an Index partner is essentially a marriage proposal. They're not deciding whether to invest, they're deciding whether to commit to you for the next decade. Your narrative needs to create that level of conviction from minute one. This is why I spend weeks with founders on the Three I's framework (Insight, Influence, Iterate) before they ever walk into a room with a Tier 1 VC. You don't get a second chance to make an Index partner feel "I have to back this person."
Chapter 2
The money, fund structure & check sizes
In July 2024, Index announced $2.3 billion in new funds, bringing their total capital raised to $15 billion since founding:
$800MVenture Fund (Seed + Series A)
$1.5BGrowth Fund (Late-stage)
$300MIndex Origin (Dedicated Seed)
Combined, that's $2.6 billion being deployed across stages. They raised these funds in "a few weeks from existing LPs", a signal of how strong their track record is.
Check Sizes by Stage
~$5.9MAverage Seed Check
~$15.8MAverage Series A
~$40.4MAverage Series B
In 2025, Index made 55 new investments. As of February 2026, they've already made 5. Their investment pace is consistent at roughly 30-55 new deals per year.
"We divide venture rounds into two categories: AI and other. AI funding rounds at the seed and Series A stages are much bigger than the average funding round."
, Nina Achadjian, Partner, Index Ventures
Sector Breakdown
Index is genuinely sector-diverse, but with clear concentrations:
612Tech companies
423Enterprise (B2B)
255Consumer (B2C)
Gian's Insider Take
The $300M Index Origin seed fund is your entry point. They explicitly say they want to back founders "at the very early stages." If you're raising seed or pre-seed, this is one of the few Tier 1 firms with a dedicated fund for your stage, and crucially, the same partner who leads your seed will stay with you through growth. That continuity is rare and valuable. But it also means they're extremely selective at seed, they're making a 10-year bet, not a quick flip.
Chapter 3
The portfolio, what they've backed
Index has backed some of the most defining tech companies of the past decade. Notice the pattern: category creators, not fast followers.
Figma
Design · Collaboration
IPO July 2025 at $13.5B. Stock surged 250% day one → $68B market cap. Index invested from seed ($1.8M). Total investment: ~$100M. Return: $7.2B.
Wiz
Cloud Security
Acquired by Google for $32B. Fastest company to $100M ARR. Index invested $3.5M at seed. Total: $245M. Return: $4.3B.
Revolut
Fintech · Consumer
Valued at $33B+. 40M+ customers. Revenue exceeding $2B. Index backed from Series A. Partner: Martin Mignot.
Slack
Enterprise · Communication
Acquired by Salesforce for $27.7B. Defined workplace messaging. IPO'd 2019.
Roblox
Gaming · Consumer
IPO 2021. $40B+ peak market cap. 200M+ MAUs. Partner: Neil Rimer.
Datadog
Infrastructure · Monitoring
IPO 2019. $2B+ ARR. Built from New York. Partner: Shardul Shah.
Scale AI
AI · Data Infrastructure
Valued at $14B. Powers nearly every major LLM. Raised $1B in 2024.
Notion
Productivity · Collaboration
Valued at $10B+. Replaced docs, wikis, and project management.
Recent 2025-26 Investments
Notice the range, from $15M seed rounds to $350M growth. Three out of four of Index's initial investments are made at the earliest stages:
Duvo
Retail AI · Agents
$15M Seed. AI workforce for retail teams. Goes live in weeks, cuts manual work by 40%. The kind of deal most seed founders should benchmark against.
Ankar AI
Legal AI · Patents
$20M Series A. Palantir alums using AI to streamline patent filing. Dec 2025.
Enigma AI
AI · Virtual Environments
$30M Seed. Autonomous world models for real-time simulations. Israeli AI startup.
Venice
Security · Access Management
$33M Seed. Enterprise privileged access management for AI era. Out of stealth.
Wonderful
Enterprise AI · Multilingual
$34M Seed + $100M Series A (months apart). AI adoption for non-English markets. Index led both rounds.
Astelia
Security · Exposure Management
$35M Series A. AI-powered exposure management. Turning guesswork into precision.
Larger recent deals: 7AI ($130M Series A), Parallel ($100M Series A), ClickHouse ($350M Series C), Mirelo AI ($41M seed, co-led with a16z). Index Origin seed fund specifically targets $5-10M seed cheques.
200,000
Jobs created by Index portfolio companies, with 20,000 more in the next 12 months
Chapter 4
How the deals actually happened
These two case studies reveal more about how Index actually operates than any marketing copy on their website.
Case Study 1: Figma, The 12-Year Bet
2013
Danny Rimer meets Dylan Field
Field was 19, had just dropped out of Brown with a Thiel Fellowship. Rimer had first noticed him as an 18-year-old intern at Flipboard, where Field gave a board presentation that was "incredibly visually appealing and original." Rimer led Figma's seed round: $1.8M.
2014
Series A: $14M
Led by Greylock, with Index following on. At this point, "design" wasn't a hot market. Rimer's conviction came from the founder, not the market.
2018
Series B: $25M
Kleiner Perkins led. Index followed on again. Figma was still building, no explosive growth yet. Index stayed in every single round.
2019
Series C: $40M
Sequoia led. By now Figma had traction, but the team was still small. Index continued backing.
2020
Series D: $50M at $2B valuation
a16z led. Figma hit product-market fit during COVID as remote design collaboration exploded.
2022
Adobe $20B acquisition attempt
Announced, then collapsed after UK regulators blocked it. Rimer: "Dylan remained his usual grounded, transparent self. When the deal fell through, he didn't flinch."
July 2025
IPO: $13.5B → Stock surges 250% → $68B market cap
Index's $1.8M seed investment, grown to ~$100M total across rounds, was now worth $7.2 billion. 1,300% return on invested capital. ~90x return on the seed check.
Gian's Insider Take
Danny Rimer noticed Dylan Field at 18, invested at 19, and stayed through every round for 12 years, including the Adobe collapse. That's what "we're invested in the people behind great ideas" actually looks like. When Index says they back founders, they mean it literally. Your narrative doesn't just need to sell your business, it needs to make the partner think "I would bet on this person for the next decade." That's the level of conviction you need to create.
Case Study 2: Wiz, The 11-Year Relationship
2014
Shardul Shah leads Series B in Adallom
Adallom was a cloud security company founded by Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, Roy Reznik, and Yinon Costica. Shah got to know the founding team deeply during this investment.
2015
Microsoft acquires Adallom for $320M
Rappaport becomes head of Microsoft's Israel development center. Shah maintains the relationship. He "patiently waited" for what would come next.
Feb 2020
Wiz founded. Shah is the first investor.
When the four founders left Microsoft and started Wiz, Shah was ready. Index led the seed round: $3.5M. Cyberstarts and Sequoia co-invested. Shah had known the founders for 6 years at this point.
Dec 2020
Series A: $100M
Led by Index, Sequoia, Insight Partners, and Cyberstarts. Just 9 months after founding, Wiz already had Fortune 100 customers. Shah, Doug Leone (Sequoia), and Gili Raanan (Cyberstarts) all joined the board.
2021-2024
Fastest company to $100M ARR in history
Multiple subsequent rounds. Wiz reached $500M ARR. Served 40%+ of the Fortune 100. Valued at $12B, then $16B.
2025
Google acquires Wiz for $32B
Index held ~12% stake. Their total investment of $245M became $4.3 billion. Shah's initial $3.5M seed check returned over 1,000x.
"The art of venture capital investing is deeply personal. Our approach is to invest in people. Because I'd known the founders for 11 years, I believe I had a stronger sense of both my intuition and my analytical framework."
, Shardul Shah, on why he was first to invest in Wiz
Gian's Insider Take
Read that Shardul Shah quote again. He waited 6 years after Adallom's exit for the founders to start their next company. When they did, he was first in. This is the Network pillar at its most powerful, not "knowing investors" but building genuine, long-term relationships where the investment becomes inevitable. This is exactly what I teach: the round closes in the relationships you build before you ever say "I'm raising." Shah didn't cold-email Wiz. He was already family.
Chapter 5
What they actually look for, in their own words
Index has been unusually transparent about their investment criteria. Here's what they've published, with the real meaning behind each point:
The Three Requirements
From their website: "Without these factors, it is unlikely that raising venture capital will be the right thing for a business."
01Passionate and committed founders. "Venture capital is fuel for a fire, but the spark must come from the passion of the founders." They want hunger, resilience, and a founder story that makes your path feel inevitable, not impressive credentials or a polished LinkedIn.
02An innovative and disruptive business idea. Not a better mousetrap. Jan Hammer describes what they look for: founders with "a new way in which they see the world, and opportunity within it... restlessness about them which is all about executing against that vision." They want category creation.
03A large market opportunity. Explicitly: "We need conviction that a business can ultimately exit for many hundreds of millions or ideally billions of dollars." They take significant minority stakes, so the market must be massive.
Jan Hammer's "Three Cs"
How Index differentiates itself, and implicitly, what they look for in founders:
C1Character. "We differentiate ourselves by being human, questioning everything and remaining authentic, not transactional." They want authentic founders, not polished performers.
C2Competency. "We hone our sector-specific expertise." They expect founders to have deep domain knowledge, not surface-level market analysis.
C3Camaraderie. "We invest under one roof of partnership, as a global team. We Are Family." They want founders they'd genuinely enjoy working with for a decade.
"We look for the unexpected. The groundbreakers and game-changers with a fire inside that can't be dimmed or duplicated."
, Index Ventures Philosophy Page
"We do not look for pedigree, but for people who inspire us to dream and who have a creative, even defiant, solution to a real problem."
, Index Ventures FAQ
Gian's Insider Take
Map Index's Three Cs to my Three I's and you see the same framework from both sides of the table. Character = Influence, can you communicate authentically? Competency = Insight, do you have a unique, deep understanding of your space? Camaraderie = Iterate, do you have the discipline and self-awareness to keep improving? Every investor is evaluating these three dimensions whether they name them or not. The founders who close Tier 1 rounds are the ones who've deliberately built all three.
Chapter 6
What they don't want, the anti-patterns
Equally important as what Index looks for is what makes them pass. Based on portfolio analysis and published statements:
Index Will Almost Certainly Pass If:
Your market is too small. They explicitly state they need conviction in exits "of many hundreds of millions or ideally billions." If your TAM caps their return potential, they're out regardless of how good the team is.
You're a fast follower, not a category creator. Look at their portfolio, Figma, Slack, Revolut, Wiz, every single one redefined its space. "We're X but better" is not an Index pitch. "We're why X becomes irrelevant" is.
You cold-email them. Their published advice explicitly says to build relationships first and seek warm introductions. Cold inbound exists but is deprioritised.
You haven't executed without funding. Direct quote: "How much you are able to achieve without funding is a strong indicator of what you will be able to achieve once funded." If you're pre-product and pre-any-traction, the bar for the other criteria goes up dramatically.
Your story takes 5 minutes to explain. If an Index partner can't explain your company to their colleagues in one sentence, you won't progress past the first meeting. Simplicity is not dumbing down, it's the sign of deep clarity.
Gian's Insider Take
Most founders who fail to close a Tier 1 round hit one of these anti-patterns without realising it. The most common one I see: founders with a genuinely great business who can't explain it simply. They think complexity signals sophistication. Investors think it signals confusion. This is exactly what the Narrative pillar fixes, 11 exercises that force you to distil your unique insight into one debatable sentence. If you can't do that, you're not ready for Index.
Chapter 7
The partners, who covers what
Index has 33 partners and 14 principals across 8+ locations. Here are the key decision-makers and their focus areas, know who to target before you make your approach:
Shardul Shah
Enterprise · Security · AI
Based in New York. Led Wiz seed, Datadog. Forbes Midas List. The partner for enterprise and cybersecurity founders. Known Wiz founders for 11 years before investing.
Nina Achadjian
Enterprise · AI · Developer Tools
Based in San Francisco. "Values founders with passion and character rather than just academic achievements." Focus on enterprise software and AI infrastructure.
Danny Rimer
Consumer · Design · Marketplaces
Co-founder. Led Figma seed ($1.8M → $7.2B), Etsy, Dropbox, Discord, Dream Games. Based in London/SF. Focus on consumer and creative tools.
Mike Volpi
Enterprise · Infrastructure · Data
Senior partner. "Capital is a commodity, but the relationships it comes with can't be commoditised." Focus on enterprise infrastructure and data.
Jan Hammer
Fintech · Consumer · Marketplaces
Based in London. Backed Robinhood from seed. Created the "Three Cs" framework. Focus on fintech, payments, and consumer marketplaces.
Martin Mignot
Consumer · Delivery · Marketplaces
Based in London. Backed Revolut, Deliveroo. Focus on European consumer companies with global ambition.
Vlad Loktev
Consumer · Product
Based in San Francisco. Ex-Airbnb (10+ years driving growth and product strategy). Newest partner. Focus on consumer and product-led companies.
Juriaan Duizendstraal
Israel · Cyber · AI · Infrastructure
Based in Tel Aviv. Led Wonderful ($34M seed + $100M Series A). 16 Israeli deals in 3 years, $300M invested. The partner for Israeli founders.
Gian's Insider Take
This partner map is your cheat sheet. Don't approach "Index Ventures", approach the specific partner whose investment thesis aligns with your company. If you're building in cybersecurity, you need a path to Shardul Shah. Fintech? Jan Hammer. European consumer? Martin Mignot. Then work backwards: who in your network knows that partner or their portfolio founders? That's your warm intro path. The founders I coach spend 2-3 weeks mapping these paths before sending a single intro request.
Chapter 8
How to approach Index, their published advice
Index has been remarkably direct about how they want founders to engage. From their website:
01Be targeted. "Think carefully why your business is likely to be of particular interest to Index given past and current investments. Think who specifically at the firm is the most relevant person to try to build a relationship with given your sector, stage and geographical focus."
02Build a relationship early. "We are always positively disposed to founders who are able to share with us some information over a period of time about how they are developing their business before we have more explicit dialogue about an investment round."
03Execute without funding first. "How much you are able to achieve without funding is a strong indicator of what you will be able to achieve once funded."
04Leverage warm introductions. Referred deals receive "priority consideration because they come with an implicit level of endorsement and credibility."
05Don't burn the bridge. "Where we have not initially believed in the vision or trusted in the execution of founders, we are always delighted to engage again with entrepreneurs who have proved us wrong."
Index's dealflow falls into three categories, in order of priority:
#1Warm referrals from trusted network
#2Proactive outreach by Index partners
#3Inbound applications
Gian's Insider Take
Point #2 and #4 are the real instruction manual. "Build a relationship early" means starting 3-6 months before your raise. Share updates. Give value. Get on their radar without asking for anything. And "warm introductions receive priority" is the Network pillar in one sentence. The founders I work with build a pipeline of 40-50 connectors, people who can introduce them to Index portfolio founders, partners, or scouts, and activate all of them simultaneously when the raise launches. That's how you go from "inbound application" (lowest priority) to "warm referral from trusted network" (highest priority).
Chapter 9
What this means for your raise
Whether you're targeting Index specifically or any Tier 1 VC, the same principles apply. Here's your action plan:
01Map your warm paths to the right Index partner. Use the partner profiles in Chapter 7. Identify which partner covers your sector. Then download your LinkedIn connections, find who in your network knows their portfolio founders, and start building those relationships with value first. You need 40-50 connectors, not 2-3 friends.
02Build your narrative around category creation. Index backs companies that redefine categories. Your unique insight needs to explain why the world is about to change, not why you're better than the incumbent. If your pitch starts with a competitor comparison, rewrite it.
03Distill your insight to one sentence. If the Index partner can't explain your company to their colleagues in one sentence, you won't get a second meeting. Test your one-liner on 10 non-domain people. If any of them need a follow-up question to understand what you do, it's not sharp enough.
04Record practice calls and review them. Index is reading you as a person, Character, Competency, Camaraderie. You can't fake conviction, but you can refine how you communicate it. Record 5 practice calls, watch them back, and fix the 2-3 moments where your energy drops or you start rambling.
05Batch your meetings into a 2-week window. Index moves decisively when they sense competition. If you drip meetings out over 3 months, you'll never create the urgency that makes a partner champion you internally. Launch hard, stack meetings, manufacture FOMO through calendar density.
06Execute without funding first. Index's own advice. Show what you can build with nothing. Then help them imagine what you'll build with $5M. That gap between bootstrapped execution and funded potential is what creates the "I have to back this" moment.
07Don't pitch before you're ready. Index's door stays open, they say "please reach out again." But the first impression matters. Nail your narrative, build your network, prepare your process. Then go. Not before.
Gian's Insider Take
Everything in this report maps to the same three pillars I've seen across 120+ funded raises: Network (warm intros, connector strategy, pipeline volume), Narrative (unique insight, one-liner, founder story, Three I's), and Process (batched meetings, communication discipline, manufactured urgency). The founders who get backed by Index, or any Tier 1 VC, are the ones who've built all three before they walk into the room. The ones who fail usually have one or two but not all three. Which one is your gap?
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Gian Seehra · Ex-Octopus Ventures · Fundraising Unlocked