Neil Rimer
Neil Rimer | |
---|---|
Born | Montreal, Canada |
October 7, 1963
Nationality | Swiss |
Alma mater | Stanford University Harvard Business School |
Occupation | Venture capitalist and investor, partner at Index Ventures |
Relatives | Father Gerald, who founded Index Securities, the predecessor to Index Ventures, in 1976. Brothers David, a partner at Index Ventures; Danny, also a partner at Index Ventures; and Richard, formerly a partner at Index Ventures, now at Acorn Energy. |
Neil Rimer is a partner at Index Ventures, a venture capital firm he co-founded with Giuseppe Zocco and brother David Rimer in 1996.[1] He is also the brother of Danny Rimer, who joined him as a partner at Index Ventures in 2002.[2]
Contents
Early Life and Education
Rimer was born in Montreal, Canada, and reared and educated (International School of Geneva) in Geneva, Switzerland. He received a bachelor’s degree in History and Economics from Stanford University, and was a General Course student at the London School of Economics. He then took his first job out of school with Montgomery Securities, an investment bank in San Francisco. He then completed a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School, and upon graduating, chose to return to Europe.[3] He was later quoted by Fortune as reflecting on this move, “I was excited about the idea of participating in the birth of the VC industry in Europe”.[4]
Career
Soon after his return to Geneva, in 1991, Rimer helped his father Gerald exit the bond trading business he had founded, and spent a few years connecting institutional investors with European technology startups, an effort that over time evolved into the official launch of Index Ventures.[4] In 1996 Rimer co-founded Index Ventures in Geneva with his brother, David, and Giuseppe Zocco,[5] helping raise Index’ first pilot fund of $17 million, followed by a $180 million fund in 1998.[4] Companies funded during this time include SCM Microsystems (now Identive)[4] and Virata, a chipmaker, which later entered into a $1.3 Billion merger with GlobeSpan.[6]
Notable investments Rimer has been involved with at Index Ventures in the years since include Betfair (LSE: BET) and Skype (acquired by eBay for $2.6 billion,[2][7] later acquired by Microsoft for $8.5 billion).[8] Rimer has also invested in and served on the boards of directors of Last.fm (acquired by CBS for $280 million),[9] Ofoto (acquired by Kodak),[10] Trolltech (acquired by Nokia for $153 million),[11] Numerical Technologies (acquired by Synopsis for $250 million);[12] Genmab (OMX: GEN);[5] and StepStone.[5] Rimer currently sits on the board of directors of a number of companies including Funding Circle, HouseTrip, MOO Print, PhotoBox, StackExchange,[5] Supercell,[13] Kaggle,[14] Metromile,[15] and The Climate Corporation (acquired by Monsanto for approximately $1.1 billion).[16]
Rimer headed the team at Index Ventures that led a $130 million funding round in Supercell, the subject of a May 6, 2013 Forbes article, “Is This the Fastest-Growing Game Company Ever?”[13] In October 2013 Softbank and GungHo Online Entertainment acquired 51% of Supercell for $1.53 billion.[17]
Philanthropy and Non-Profit Involvement
Rimer is a member of the board of directors of Human Rights Watch (HRW)[18] and is a founder of the Geneva Committee of HRW. He has also served on the European Leadership Council of Harvard Business School and on the board of U.C. Sampdoria, a football club competing in the Italian Serie A professional football league competition.[1]
External links
- Index Ventures website
- Neil Rimer on Index Ventures blog
- Neil Rimer on TwitterLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Meet the man behind Europe’s hottest VC firm, in GigaOM (April 13, 2012)
- Neil Rimer Explains Index Ventures’ New Seed Program, in Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch (April 26, 2010)
References
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