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I am a partner at Index Ventures, a leading global venture capital firm that backs the…
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Martin Mignot shared thisI sat down with Antoine Santi and François Santi recently to talk about my 15 years at Index Ventures and what it takes to build a global company from Europe. It was a great conversation – a few parts stuck with me: 1. What makes Index different is how we show up for founders. We have the same team investing across seed, venture and growth, so founders can scale without ever having to rebuild trust with a new partner. And because we operate as one team across the 10-hour time zone (from SF to Tel Aviv), when a company wants to go global, we’ve literally been there before. 2. Nik Storonsky is the best European entrepreneur of his generation, and I think history will reflect that (if it hasn't already). Watching him operate taught me more about excellence and ambition than anything else in my career. 3. I heard Barry Diller talk recently about getting his first break by taking on a project nobody else wanted. It reminded me of my own early career, when I was young enough not to be weighed down by all the reasons a deal shouldn’t work. If you’re early in your investing career, go find the deals nobody is looking at. 4. When we opened our NYC office, we made sure one senior partner from London and one from SF moved there together, alongside people who already knew Index well. With a core of five, we hit the ground running. There’s a lesson there for European founders trying to cross the Atlantic: go yourself, bring people who know your company, and hire hungry junior talent over expensive senior execs who’ve never built something from zero. 5. A lot of European founders think their home market is big enough. France, Germany, the UK, etc. may be enough to get to product-market fit and €100M, but then growth inevitably slows. Opening a second European market is almost as hard as going to the US. The best companies are born global. Start with the largest market in mind, and you’ll never have to play catch-up. Thanks again to Antoine and François for the thoughtful questions and for having me on, and thanks Jean-David Chamboredon for recommending me. You can find a link to the full conversation below 👇
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Martin Mignot shared thisThis is gonna be an amazing event. If you like Anthropic products and want to see real implementations at scale this is the place to be. Apply at the link in the commentsMartin Mignot shared thisNothing great starts finished. The best ideas — the best code, the best companies, the best collaborations — all started as a draft. The builders who spend their time iterating — who light up at the latest rev, spend late nights making one last tweak — know it's the work in progress that's worth celebrating. WIP is a day to celebrate builders. We’ll hear from teams at Wiz, Revolut, incident.io, Motorway, Nord Security and ElevenLabs. We'll also be joined by members of Anthropic's technical, research and GTM teams, including Sam Ringer, Stephan von Perger, Lewis Maconachy and Bob W.. As well as the Index team - Danny Rimer, Jan Hammer, Hannah Seal, Julia Andre, Georgia Stevenson, Bastian Hasslinger, Khalehla Nuzum, Emil Schaefer, Sandra Schwarzer, Joe Abbott, Katy Zack, Isaiah Baril-Dore and many more! London only. Spaces are limited - request yours here: https://lnkd.in/eHSbxYc2
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Martin Mignot reposted thisMartin Mignot reposted thisFor too long, meetings have been mislabelled as a tax on productivity. Not because conversations don't matter, but because we've never had the means to properly honour them. That's how all of us felt when we first used Granola: the freedom to immerse ourselves in the meeting, in the knowledge that the rest was taken care of. Granola didn't just make notes, it changed the tone of the meeting itself, and in doing so, enhanced everything that flowed from it. Conversations became shareable, decisions understandable, and insights surfaceable. This experience has turned every user into an evangelist, and it's a pattern we've seen before: from a grassroots movement to an essential enterprise infrastructure. This kind of product love is no surprise given how Christopher Pedregal & Sam Stephenson have approached building: subtly, intentionally, and warmly, with razor-sharp scrutiny. Relentlessly keeping the customer at the core of everything they do. That's why Danny Rimer (my Partner in Crime as per Granola Crunched!) and I could not be more thrilled to lead their $125m Series C. Read more in the comments below about why we believe there couldn't be a more important time for Granola to exist 👇
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Martin Mignot reposted thisMartin Mignot reposted thisFor too long, meetings have been mislabelled as a tax on productivity. Not because conversations don't matter, but because we've never had the means to properly honour them. That's how all of us felt when we first used Granola: the freedom to immerse ourselves in the meeting, in the knowledge that the rest was taken care of. Granola didn't just make notes, it changed the tone of the meeting itself, and in doing so, enhanced everything that flowed from it. Conversations became shareable, decisions understandable, and insights surfaceable. This experience has turned every user into an evangelist, and it's a pattern we've seen before: from a grassroots movement to an essential enterprise infrastructure. This kind of product love is no surprise given how Christopher Pedregal & Sam Stephenson have approached building: subtly, intentionally, and warmly, with razor-sharp scrutiny. Relentlessly keeping the customer at the core of everything they do. That's why Danny Rimer (my Partner in Crime as per Granola Crunched!) and I could not be more thrilled to lead their $125m Series C. Read more in the comments below about why we believe there couldn't be a more important time for Granola to exist 👇
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Martin Mignot shared thisAnother phenomenal year for Revolut. Scale, growth, profitability, diversification, addressable market - they’ve got everything. Making Europe proud as a true home-grown giant. Congrats Nik Storonsky and team !Martin Mignot shared thisToday we published our 2025 Annual Report. Ten years in, Revolut is setting the global benchmark for the future of banking. Our FY25 results show a business that is increasingly profitable at scale, diversified by design, and growing faster than ever: �� $6.0bn Revenue: Grew 46% year-on-year. • 11 Product Lines: Exceeded £100m in revenue each. • $2.3bn Profit Before Tax: Delivered a record 38% margin. • $67.5bn Customer Balances: Surged 66% as daily usage increased. • 40 Markets: Now operating as a bank in 30+ of these, including the UK and Mexico. We enter 2026 from a position of strength and have only just begun to show what is possible. 🚀
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Martin Mignot reposted thisMartin Mignot reposted thisIt has been a HUGE week for Index Ventures: 🔥 Revolut, backed by Martin Mignot, got its UK banking licence 🔥 Wonderful, backed by Hannah Seal, raised at a $2bn valuation 🔥 Wiz, backed Shardul Shah, completed its $32bn acquisition 🔥 Alan, backed by Jan Hammer, hit €785m in ARR and raised at a €5bn valuation The firm continues to demonstrate why it is one of the best of the best. Shout out to Katy Zack who is in her third week at Index Ventures working in comms - what a start 😂. I interviewed both Shardul and Jan about the respective companies. Check Jan's out here: https://lnkd.in/ePiV_DdQ and Shardul's here: https://lnkd.in/ehGr5rzA The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel, sponsored by Venture Comet LTD, SurrealDB and Omni.
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Martin Mignot shared thisWe first backed Nik Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko in 2015. The vision was clear even then: build the global money app - instant, borderless, and designed around the customer rather than the bank. Today, Revolut launches as a fully licensed UK bank. It's easy to forget how remote this felt a decade ago when Nik and the Revolut team started as a simple prepaid card for travellers. Now: Revolut has 13 million UK customers, and after today, can bring the same experience that it's built across Europe to customers in its home market. As Nik put it: "The UK is our home market and central to our growth." This licence is the foundation for what comes next. Congratulations to Nik, Francesca Carlesi, Tom Hambrett and the entire Revolut team. This milestone took years of discipline to earn.Martin Mignot shared thisWe’ve received regulatory approval to launch as a fully licensed bank in the UK. As a bank, we’ll soon offer accounts protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £120,000 per person on eligible deposits. It also means we’ll be able to launch more banking features in the future — so keep an eye out for updates. We’ll gradually begin the process of rolling out current accounts to new customers next week. Existing customers will be notified soon on when we will begin to transition their accounts to the new bank — and their app and cards will continue to work as normal. Read more in our FAQs: https://lnkd.in/gEU65aG3 Revolut is not a bank in all of the countries it operates in. Products and feature availability varies by region. Visit revolut.com for more info.
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Martin Mignot reposted thisMartin Mignot reposted thisToday Revolut has officially launched its UK bank. For years, our goal in the UK has been simple but ambitious: to build a financial platform so good that you don’t need to bank anywhere else. Today, we’ve secured one of the final pieces of that puzzle. Launching a bank in our home market has been a key strategic priority for us, and will catalyse our next stage of innovation in the UK. It’s an important milestone as we continue to scale worldwide. We’ll start our phased current account rollout, starting with new customers next week, as we prepare to transition our existing customers seamlessly. Congratulations to the entire Revolut team involved in the process! 🚀
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Martin Mignot shared this𝐍𝐨 𝐋𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐍𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 In my 16 years in venture, there is only one other time that compares to the past couple of weeks of SaaSpocalypse… COVID. Tech is by nature a boom-and-bust industry, prone to manias and disillusions. But what is unique in this moment is that it is both up and down AT THE SAME TIME. Like COVID created overnight big winners and losers, today AI is booming while software is collapsing. Neither with much certainty. Is the capex forecast sustainable? Are systems of record going to be disrupted? There are as many opinions as there are podcasts. And there are a lot of podcasts. During COVID, the tech industry had Clubhouse. Today, we have TBPN. Whenever there is doubt and uncertainty, the noise level goes up. We talk it out before the numbers bear it out. We are also prone to the wildest extrapolations. Work from home was going to be the new norm forever. Now every white-collar job is going to be replaced by a swarm of agents. The nature and impact of the disruption are different, but our response is similar. Reality is always more nuanced than the bombastic predictions. But nuance won’t get as many views as Elon claiming we will need 30,000 annual Falcon rocket launches by 2030, to bring more datacenter capacity to space in a single year than exists on Earth today. (For context, SpaceX did 165 flights last year.) Some software companies will get disrupted and become obsolete. Others will aggressively invest in AI and thrive. All the alpha will be in doing the hard work of figuring out, company by company, which is which. But right now, we are at peak confusion. Our echo chamber has made it harder to separate signal from noise. And to even know what to do - as an investor, an entrepreneur, or an operator. There is no legibility. Here are four principles I follow to avoid getting lost at sea: → Focus on the mega-trends and stay on the right side of them Demography (fear of unemployment will soon flip to fear of labor shortage). Scaling laws (AI will improve on a predictable schedule). Energy transition (solar and batteries are making electricity cheap). Climate reality (global warming is inevitable and will likely require geoengineering). → Think about what won’t change, not only what will Large parts of the economy won’t be structurally impacted by AI, or will only benefit. Fintech and payments, for example: Nubank’s share price hasn’t moved over the past month. Not every company is being disrupted tomorrow. → It’s all about the people Work with the most extraordinary people you know. Together you’ll figure it out. → Reality is a construction of your brain Step out of the bubble regularly. Exercise, play, pray. Turn your phone off. Go away for a weekend with only a good book. Write. Have fun. And most importantly? Don’t listen to any more podcasts (for a day). What are you doing to maintain clarity right now?
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Congrats Hanno Renner and team. So much potential for the product to continue to evolve and become more and more powerful for your customers, and aurio is just one step.
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Martin Mignot liked thisMartin Mignot liked this20 years ago I lived, studied and worked in China — in Shanghai and Hong Kong — and travelled relentlessly across the country and the broader Asian region. The region has always fascinated me. I love re-visiting places I knew well all those years ago, observing what has changed, what has been lost, what has been gained. Last year I wrote about returning to China after 20 years — observing the changes we saw in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong. This year, our itinerary was more eclectic: Hong Kong, XingPing (deep in the Guilin region), Shenzhen, and then Japan (more on that later). The trip left again a strong impression — and confirmed much of what we've been writing in Currency of Power: China as the Electrostate, building a what Nicolas Colin calls a "full-stack civilisation", laying the groundwork to export its Electroyuan. Part II. Here's what I found 👇China's Transformation: A 20 Years Perspective — Part IIChina's Transformation: A 20 Years Perspective — Part II
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Martin Mignot liked thisMartin Mignot liked thisI've joined Jump 🎉 After becoming the biggest umbrella company in France, Jump has just launched in the UK market. We're a modern, tech-driven challenger brand, and the mission is simple: to build an umbrella company that contractors will actually love. I'm joining at the very start of the UK journey, surrounded by the fantastic French team in Paris, and I have a real opportunity to shape what Jump UK looks like. But I need your help! If you're a contractor or freelancer in the UK, I'd love to talk. Not to sell you anything, just an honest chat. What's working with your current setup? What's frustrating? What would make your life easier? For my agency network, you'll be hearing from me soon 👀 Drop a comment or DM me if you're open to it - your insight is invaluable as we build out the platform. #Freelance #Contractor #SelfEmployed #UmbrellaCompany #IR35
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Martin Mignot reacted on thisMartin Mignot reacted on thisSo we organised a little Parisian lunch with Martin Mignot, the Frenchie running at the top of the US ecosystem, with Index Ventures. 70 people showed up. Investors, operators, founders. We got into the behind-the-scenes of Europe's biggest deals: Revolut, Captain Train, Figma, and the ones that got away: Spotify, ElevenLabs. But mostly, we talked about what it actually takes for a European-born startup to make it in the US. There's no single playbook. It depends on your market, your traction, and your team. But one piece of advice from Martin is to start looking for US clients on Day 1. The US isn't a destination you reach when you're "ready". It's a muscle. You either build it early or you fall behind. The trap? Starting in France because you have contacts and an accessible market, building a sense of traction. Four years for France. More years for Germany or the UK. Meanwhile, a US company in the same space has raised 20x more and is 15x bigger. Close your first US deals from Europe. Fly in to meet them. Then do it again. Over the next few weeks, we'll be sharing more insights from this fireside chat. Thanks to La Maison by Motier Ventures , Clément, Guillaume Houzé, Saish Rane, Mariette Boitard for hosting this in this amazing place, and to all the participants. cc Martin Mignot, Christophe Raynaud, Noé, Younes Rharbaoui, Marietta Combot, Geoffroy d'H, Luka Lazić, Shiraz Mahfoudhi, Thibaud Elziere , Nicolas Grenié, Basil Lizotte, Amelie Juge, Brice Huet , Alexandre Mordellet, Laurene Lecomte, Marc Lao, Juliette Ast, Albin Serviant, Quentin Soulet, Maxime Champoux and all the people present there 👀
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Martin Mignot reacted on thisMartin Mignot reacted on thisI sat down with David M Rubenstein for Bloomberg's Peer-to-Peer Conversations which aired this week. It was a good discussion and I want to highlight a few critical points: - People often ask about an IPO. I told David that 2028 is the earliest window we would consider, simply because we are in the rare position of being able to choose the right moment. Right now we are focused on serving our customers, growing the business and building great product. - Reaching 100 markets isn't about attaining a specific valuation. I've always believed that where you're born shouldn't determine your financial future. That's what drives every market we enter - building products that fit, and making finance accessible, no matter where you are. - The U.S. is one of the most important markets in the world and we're serious about it, with more than $500M committed and a national bank charter application in progress. - AI is already deep in our platform - from onboarding and fraud detection to support and personalised insights. Most companies are still treating it as a feature. We’ve built it into the core of how everything works. - Revolut is flat, deliberately, and attracts highly motivated, skilled employees with character, ambition, and strong product instincts. I work directly with engineers, product owners & designers and stay plugged into the day-to-day. Some find that unconventional. I find the alternative slow and inefficient. We also touched on QuantumLight, my venture fund, which takes a rigorous, science-driven approach to investing and was born out of my frustrations with the traditional VC ecosystem. Thanks for the chat, David. I enjoyed it. Watch the entire conversation here: https://lnkd.in/eiR-meym
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