Neil Rimer
Born (1963-10-07) October 7, 1963
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
NationalitySwiss
Alma materStanford University Harvard Business School
Occupation(s)Venture capitalist and investor, founder and partner at Index Ventures
RelativesFather 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 Swiss-Canadian venture capitalist who is the founding partner at Index Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in Europe, the United States, and Israel.[1][2][3] He is also the co-chair of the board of directors at Human Rights Watch.[4]

Early life and education

Rimer was born in Montreal, Quebec, 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.[5]

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”.[6]

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.[6] In 1996 Rimer co-founded Index Ventures in Geneva with his brother, David, and Giuseppe Zocco,[7] helping raise Index’ first pilot fund of $17 million, followed by a $180 million fund in 1998.[6] Companies funded during this time include SCM Microsystems (now Identiv)[6] and Virata, a chipmaker, which later entered into a $1.3 Billion merger with GlobeSpan.[8] Index started investing in Israeli companies in 2003.[9] As of 2007, Rimer claimed to The Wall Street Journal that "the bulk of our portfolio is in Europe and Israel."[10]

Notable investments by Rimer's company include Betfair (LSE: BET) and Skype (acquired by eBay for $2.6 billion,[11][12] later acquired by Microsoft for $8.5 billion).[13] Index Ventures has invested in 21 Israeli companies, including MyHeritage, Outbrain, Lacoon, Adallom, Wiz, Capitolis, and Gong.io.[14]

Rimer has also invested in and served on the boards of directors of Last.fm (acquired by CBS for $280 million),[15] Ofoto (acquired by Kodak),[16] Trolltech (acquired by Nokia for $153 million),[17] Numerical Technologies (acquired by Synopsis for $250 million);[18] Genmab (Nasdaq Copenhagen: GEN);[7] and StepStone.[7] Rimer currently sits on the board of directors of a number of companies including Call9, Funding Circle, HouseTrip, MOO Print, PhotoBox, StackExchange,[7] Supercell,[19] Kaggle,[20] Metromile,[21] and The Climate Corporation (acquired by Monsanto for approximately $1.1 billion).[22]

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?”[19] In October 2013 Softbank and GungHo Online Entertainment acquired 51% of Supercell for $1.53 billion.[23]

In November 2017 Rimer was concerned that, although Europe was on a path to significance, it could miss the opportunities to build huge companies such as Amazon, Facebook or Google, if it could not attract the required talent.[24] In April 2020, Neil Rimer became a member of the Taxfix board.[25]

Awards

In 2017, Rimer was named the number one venture capitalist in Europe in Forbes' inaugural Midas List Europe.[26] He was also featured on the Forbes Global Midas list in 2018[27] and the 2018 New York Times list of the top venture capitalists worldwide.[28]

Philanthropy and Non-Profit Involvement

Rimer is a member of the board of directors of Human Rights Watch (HRW),[29] of which he became Co-Chair in 2019,[30] and is a founder of the Geneva Committee of HRW which named Israel an "Apartheid State". 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.[3]

In January 2022, Neil Rimer, together with his father and brothers, donated $13 million to McGill University, for the modernization of the Leacock building and the setting up of the Institute for Indigenous Research and Knowledges. Rimer took the opportunity to highlight the lifelong impact the education at McGill had had on his parents.[31]

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References

  1. ↑ "Two Giant European VCs want founders to give more equity to employees". TechCrunch. 27 November 2017.
  2. ↑ "Staff stock option hurdles hamper European start-ups". FT. November 26, 2017.
  3. 1 2 "Wall Street Journal Fast Forward: Speakers and Guests".
  4. ↑ "New Chairs to Lead Human Rights Watch Board". Human Rights Watch. 5 November 2019. Archived from the original on 18 September 2020. Retrieved 3 May 2021. In 2020, Neil Rimer, a Human Rights Watch board member since 2009, will join her as co-chair
  5. ↑ "In Conversation With Neil Rimer". PICTET Perspectives. May 16, 2012.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "25 Rising Stars". Fortune. May 14, 2001. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Levie, Damelin, Rimer, Onur, Klein, Khan To Speak At TechCrunch Disrupt Europe". TechCrunch. July 24, 2013.
  8. ↑ "GlobeSpan, Virata merge in $1.3 billion deal". CNET. October 1, 2001.
  9. ↑ "Index Ventures, Open for Business". Haaretz.
  10. ↑ Austin, Scott (3 March 2009). "Index Ventures Plows Ahead in Europe". Wall Street Journal.
  11. ↑ "MediaGuardian 100 2012". The Guardian. September 16, 2012.
  12. ↑ "EBay Buys Skype for $2.6 Billion". PC World. September 12, 2005.
  13. ↑ "Why Microsoft Is Buying Skype for $8.5 Billion". GigaOM. May 9, 2011.
  14. ↑ "HRW chairman invests in Israel as he calls it 'apartheid'".
  15. ↑ "CBS Acquires Europe's Last.fm for $280 million". TechCrunch. May 30, 2007.
  16. ↑ "Kodak buys Ofoto.com". MarketWatch. April 30, 2001.
  17. ↑ "Nokia Acquires Trolltech For $153 Million". TechCrunch. January 28, 2008.
  18. ↑ "Synopsys to buy Numerical Tech for $250 million". EE Times. January 13, 2003.
  19. 1 2 "Is This The Fastest-Growing Game Company Ever?". Forbes. May 6, 2013.
  20. ↑ "Index And Khosla Lead $11M Round In Kaggle, A Platform For Data Modeling Competitions". TechCrunch. November 2, 2011.
  21. ↑ "WhoGotFunded: MetroMile".
  22. ↑ "Monsanto Buys Weather Big Data Company Climate Corporation For Around $1.1B". TechCrunch. October 2, 2013.
  23. ↑ "Supercell Dominates The Realm: Game Maker Sells A 51%, $1.53B Stake To SoftBank and GungHo Online". TechCrunch. October 15, 2013.
  24. ↑ Praseeda Nair (27 November 2017). "Are European tech start-ups being held back by lower 'reward for risk'?". growthbusiness.co.uk. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  25. ↑ Romain Dillet (2 April 2020). "Taxfix raises $65M for its mobile tax filing app". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  26. ↑ "Forbes Announces First-Ever 2017 Midas List Europe". Forbes. November 6, 2017.
  27. ↑ "The Midas List". Forbes. April 3, 2018.
  28. ↑ "The Top 100 Venture Capitalists". 31 March 2019.
  29. ↑ "Human Rights Watch: Board of Directors". 5 May 2020.
  30. ↑ "Neil Rimer". forbes.com. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  31. ↑ Janice Arnold (6 January 2022). "Gerald Rimer and sons' donation to McGill will create a new Indigenous research institute; Leacock name to disappear from the Montreal campus". thecjn.ca. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
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