Index Ventures, the firm known for backing online video-chat service Skype at its early stages, said on Tuesday that it had raised 400 million euros for a venture fund focused on early-stage investments. The new fund, which comes just two years after Index announced its previous 350 million euro early-stage fund, underscores a continuing increase in investors' interest in venture capital. With a new 400 million euro fund, Index Ventures will stick with its global strategy, but perhaps with more of a U.S. twist."In some ways, we are going to be more present in the U.S. than we were in the past," Danny Rimer, a San Francisco-based partner at Index, said in an interview. "You're going to see earlier-stage investments that come out of the U.S."Rimer's investments include Los Angeles-based fashion company Nastygal, San Francisco-based artificial-intelligence gaming developer Anki and San Francisco-based file-storage company Dropbox.Index Ventures, which was founded in Geneva, has seen some big outcomes in recent months. Over the last year, one portfolio company, Helsinki-based gaming company Supercell, sold a majority stake for $1.53 billion to two Japanese companies. Monsanto Co, the world's largest seed company, bought another, San Francisco-based Climate Corp, for $1.1 billion.
Monsanto Company (Monsanto) along with its subsidiaries, is a provider of agricultural products for farmers. Shares of MON remained unchanged at $121.35. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $94.00 and as high as $122.81. On average, 2676070 shares of MON exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1757337.
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