VC firm Index Ventures, headquartered in both London and San Francisco, has announced $2bn in new funds to back new entrepreneurs.
The firm said its limited investor base is comprised of research organisations, universities, medical institutes and pension funds.
While the majority of the new funds were raised prior to the worsening pandemic, it said during “choppy waters” it is seeing the emergence of a new generation of business leaders “who, by doing the right thing not only for their business, but for the people it touches, will inspire the long-term loyalty of colleagues, customers and others they work with.”
The leading firm has previously backed well known tech firms including Deliveroo, Revolut, and Transferwise, alongside European tech hits iZettle and Adyen.
More recently it backed London childminding platform Tiney and Europe’s largest digital healthcare provider KRY.
The new cash is split into two funds, the $800m early-stage fund ‘Index Ventures X’ and $1.2bn later stage fund ‘Index Growth V’.
The firm wrote in a blog post that “innovation is often born out of adversity” and it believed the next generation of entrepreneurs and founders will be “critical to the world’s social and economic recovery”.
It said the new funds will “focus on those that are fundamentally transforming the way we live and work, as well as those providing the enterprise infrastructure and AI to underpin these changes in society and the economy”.