Neil Rimer

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. 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”.

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

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

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. In 1996 Rimer co-founded Index Ventures in Geneva with his brother, David, and Giuseppe Zocco, helping raise Index’ first pilot fund of $17 million, followed by a $180 million fund in 1998. Companies funded during this time include SCM Microsystems (now Identive) and Virata, a chipmaker, which later entered into a $1.3 Billion merger with GlobeSpan.