Index Ventures to pump £429m into EU tech companies

Technology investor Index Ventures has said it will invest €500m (£429m) in fast-growing European tech businesses.

The firm has considerable expertise within the technology sector and has previously invested in internet and software businesses.

The growth fund will make an equity investment of between €10m and €50m in the businesses it chooses.

It hopes to help grow the businesses it chooses by providing further capital for investment and access to its international expertise.

Index Ventures' first London-based investment was in online gambling company Betfair in 2001.

It has since invested in a range of UK-based companies such as the takeaway food web site Just Eat and the online ticket exchange web site Viagogo.

"We are fortunate to have been involved with landmark companies such as ASOS, Betfair, MySQL, Last.fm, Playfish and Skype who have called London their home and gone on to become global category leaders," said co-founder and partner of Index Ventures, Neil Rimer in a blog.

The technology investor launched its first growth fund in 2007, aiming to help companies see revenue of $1bn within a period of three to five years.

In a blog, Giuseppe Zocco, co-founder and partner of Index Ventures, said: "The growth fund is a very important part of our integrated strategy to support entrepreneurs at various stages of their development.

"The revolutions taking place in our industry, from cloud and SaaS through to social and mobile platforms, have created an environment where it is cheaper and more capital efficient than before for entrepreneurs to quickly launch innovative products and services, and test them in the market."

The average revenue growth rate of the companies that received investment from Index Ventures was 70 per cent between 2009 and 2010.