Index Ventures hires for life sciences

Pan-European venture capital firm Index Ventures has strengthened its Geneva-based life sciences team with the appointments of principal Michèle Ollier and associate Roman Fleck.

Ollier was formerly an investment director at Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, the Paris-based venture capital arm of Edmond de Rothschild Group, where she served on the board of several international life sciences companies, including Androclus in the US; U3 Pharma in Germany; and Faust Pharmaceuticals and IGNA of France.

Prior to that, Ollier was responsible for strategy, development and commercialisation of pharmaceutical products at Serono International; Sanofi Pharma International; Bristol Myers Squibb France; Rhone Poulence Rorer International; and RPR Gencell.

Before joining Index Ventures, Fleck worked in drug discovery and business development at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals in the US.

Established in 1996, London, Jersey and Geneva-based Index Ventures focuses on early-stage investments in primarily European and Israeli life science and information technology companies, of which Skype is the firm’s best-known recent investment.

The free web-based telecommunications provider was sold to online auction business eBay last September for $4.1 billion (€3.2 billion), providing a windfall for Index Ventures and co-investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Bessemer Venture Partners and Mangrove Capital Partners.

Earlier this week, Index Ventures injected an undisclosed amount of Series A funding in Last.fm, a free online social music network. Index Ventures led the funding round alongside angel investors and internet community entrepreneurs Joi Ito, Reid Hoffman and Stefan Glaenzer.