Index debuts $700M growth fund for late-stage companies

The firm also opens a new office in San Francisco

Index Ventures—famed investor in such big-name companies as Lovefilm, Etsy, Dropbox, and Skype—announced Wednesday that it has closed a $700 million fund for investing in late-stage companies and for opening its new San Francisco office.

The firm said in its announcement that the new Growth fund will be used to invest between €10 million and €50 million (or $14 million to $70 million) in “fast growing companies” who have global ambitions (i.e. taking their business overseas to the U.S. or Europe).  Index could not be reached for comment, but Partner Bernard Dallé told PaidContent that the aim of the fund is to support late-stage companies that haven't been able to make the leap into a public offering due to the rocky market. 

The firm has seen some big numbers as of late with 15 exits among companies in its portfolio in the last 12 months, including Amazon’s £200 million ($317 million) acquisition of Lovefilm in January, RPX’s $160 million IPO in May, and Red Hat’s $136 million acquisition of storage company Gluster last month.

Additionally, Index made 48 new investments and 55 follow-on investments in the last year.  Some of the more notable rounds that Index has led include Dropbox’s $250 million round last month, which gave the company a $4 billion valuation.  Index contributed $85 million to that round. The firm also led an $11 million round in European mobile payments company iZettle last month. 

Other rounds in which Index has participated include Lookout Mobile Security’s $40 million round in September, Flipboard’s $10.5 million Series A round in July 2010, and Russian online retailer Ozon.ru’s $100 million in September.

Of all the investments made in the last year, Index says 29 have been in seed rounds, 57 have gone towards supporting venture investments, and 15 have been used to accelerate growth businesses.

The firm currently has investments in 12 countries throughout the UK, the U.S., Europe, and Israel. 

Image source: icanhascheezburger