Neil is a general partner at Index Ventures, a firm he co-founded in Geneva in 1996. Today, Index is the largest venture capital firm in Europe and one of the leading in the world, as well as the leading fintech investor with investments in Funding Circle, Adyen, TransferWise and Robinhood.

Since founding the firm has raised $5.6 billion and has more than 160 technology companies in its portfolio.

Born in Montreal, Neil graduated in History and Economics at Stanford, and gained an MBA from Harvard Business School. He spent four years with Montgomery Securities in San Francisco, and joined Index Securities in 1990 – the predecessor to Index Ventures. Neil is also on the board of the non-profit, non-governmental organization, Human Rights Watch.

In his FT interview, Neil summed up his approach to investment. “We all exercise our brains as cynics every day, we’re all experts in what happens when things go wrong. But for me, the more valuable exercise is: What happens if it does work?”