The VC firm raised $3.1 billion across three funds for seed, early-stage, and growth-stage investments respectively.

Index Ventures, the transatlantic venture firm that backed startups such as Confluent (NASDAQ: CFLT) and Roblox (NYSE: RBLX), has raised a massive $3.1 billion across three funds. The new funds are early-stage fund Index Ventures XI ($900 million ), growth fund Index Ventures Growth VI ($2 billion), and the previously announced seed fund Index Origin ($200 million). The funds would together help entrepreneurs to build and scale startups from seed-stage to IPO. (Pitchbook)

Across all the stages, Index Ventures has a preference for the enterprise software, SaaS, fintech, marketplaces, and consumer sectors, with about 80% of investments flowing to them.

The VC giant told Sifted in an interview that it landed the new money in a matter of weeks from LPs that were a mix of US and European organizations, university endowments, medical institutions, and pension funds.

The firm took in the new capital a year after its raise in two funds of $1.2 billion for growth-stage and $800 million for early-stage investments.

The pandemic’s impact on the formation of new business

In a blog post, Index said the pandemic had triggered a boom in the launch of new businesses, with the US itself accounting for 4.4 million, the biggest ever.

Other countries such as the UK, Germany, Japan, France, and others also witnessed a similar trend.

“While the pandemic was devastating in so many ways, COVID-related restrictions created an opening for founders to re-imagine our world, transcending physical boundaries,” the VC firm wrote.

Index expects these newborn businesses to be “the force that shapes the decades to come,” and has therefore lined up funding of this magnitude.

“With this latest announcement, we’ve built out a platform that allows us to continue partnering with the most iconic entrepreneurs, helping them build companies step by step that endure through business cycles.”

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