Why Index’s Danny Rimmer bets on Phimma and Dylanfield at Seed Stage

After that, Field was an intern on a buzzy startup flipboard. Field presented to the startup board and outlined his confidence in his research into features that users loved and floped. Rimer, a partner at index ventures since 2002, remembers it very clearly.

“What’s interesting is that he did a very good quantitative job of understanding what features make the most sense, and the way he presented it was very visually appealing and original,” Rimmer said. luck. “I remember thinking he was 18 years old and thinking, ‘Wow, this guy has a unique and persuasive way of communicating information.’ ”

Field was about to raise the Figma seed round, so Rimmer met Field again shortly afterwards. It was 2013, and the biggest high-tech IPO of the year was Twitter, and I wasn’t necessarily optimistic about design as a market. Also, Field was not in a hurry to put out the product.

“The 19-year-old, who had a lot of clarity about what he wanted to do, democratized the world of design and provided tools for everyone,” said Rimmer, a university art history major who was attracted to Figma’s taste. “He had this ambition to drop out of college to pursue this crazy idea, where he’s clearly not able to come up with a product for more than two years.

Rimmer – Investments include Etsy, Dropbox, Discord and Dream Games. In Seed, Index invested $1.8 million and totaled $86.5 million in the company over the next 12 years. luck. INDEX sold about 5% of its shares at the IPO for about 5% of its shares, creating floats, raising about $66 million. As Figma sharing is skyrocketing On the first day of trading on Thursday, the remaining shares of Figma in the index swelled north by $7 billion. The source said luck The seeds that were closed to the market on the day of IPO were multiples of 1300% of the capital invested.

Reimer declined to comment on certain numbers. Nevertheless, Figma’s absolute shredding of public markets shows that not only is the return of Tech IPOs, but the company’s original paper, which states that design is important and vast, has been going well for a long time.

“It was a time when everyone in the world wanted to be a designer,” Reimer said. “Design was like an architecture during the Bauhaus movement in the early 20th century. Everyone was talking about being an app, software and fashion designer. It was a term that became synonymous with the future.

Rimer and the index team are also not subscribed to the highly cited gross address market (or TAM) metrics, which are backers of two venture capital success stories this year. Chasing an accurate TAM can be misleading, Rimer said.

“We’ve learned a long time ago to consider the entire available market as noise. Perhaps it’s wrong,” he said. “Example: We invested in Etsy, and most people were thinking, how big is Etsy? How many people in the world do you have in Sunday Craft? 100,000? 200,000? And we said, this is actually a phenomenon. It actually expands the market dramatically again.”

With AI in the AI boom, Figma is a kind of perfect moment, Rimer said, as AI creates more vibe coders and designers with more vibes.

“We didn’t expect AI to be trying to create another exponential opportunity curve for Figma,” Rimer said. “We already thought the number of apps and software and the number and speed of software were already fascinating. But of course, AI has reduced the standard for anyone to create apps and anyone to become a developer.

The intern who used the thoughtful slides had it right the whole time. The design was not around. That was basic.

Icymi… Terminology Sheet Podcast It’s officially released! I can’t wait to talk to you every week. First guest: Will Hurd, Chief Strategy Officer at Chaos Industries. Episode 1 lives here.

Let’s meet,

Alligarfink
X: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
Submit a Terminology Sheet Newsletter Agreement here.

Joey Abrams curated the trading section of today’s newsletter. Subscribe here.

Venture deals

– AnacondaAustin-based AI operating system raised $150 million in Series C funding. Insight partner Leading the round and participating Brave capital.

– FalSan Francisco-based Generated Media Infrastructure Platform raised $125 million in Series C funding Salesforce Venture, Shopify Venture, Google ai futures Fund, Bessemer Venture partner, Family Ventureand others.

– KirbyNew York City-based cloud-native emergency communications and response solutions provider raised $100 million from AT&T Venture, Axon Companies, Cox Enterprise, global Medicine response, Hanako’s Growth, Hercules’ capitaland others.

– safetyPalo Alto, California-based CyberAgi has raised $70 million in Series C funding. Avatar Venture Leading the round and participating Sig Venture Capital, NEXTEQUITY partner, Prosperity 7 Ventureand existing investors.

– Qi TechSao Paulo-based Financial Infrastructure Company raised $63 million in Series B expansion. General Atlantic Ocean He led the round.

– Good job gamethe Türkiye-based Istanbul-based mobile gaming company has raised $60 million in Series A funding. Menlo Venture and The capital of Antos Leading the round and participating Bessemer Venture Partners.

– WallarmSan Francisco-based API and Agent AI Security Platform has raised $55 million in Series C funding. Toba capital He led the round.

– AugustoSeattle-based spatial AI technology inventory and task tracking developers raised $37.5 million in Series A funding. TQ Venture Leading the round and participating Arena Holdings, Tony James’ Family Officeand others.

– Clinethe developer of the San Francisco-based AI coding agent has raised $32 million in seed and Series A funding. Emerging capital Leading and participating in the Series A round pace capital, 1984 Venture, essence VC, Cox indexand others.

– Stablea New York City-based Layer 1 blockchain network, powered by USDT, designed to deliver seamless financial transactions through Stablecoins, raising $28 million in seed funding. Bitfinex & Hack VC Leading the round and participating Franklin Templeton, castle island Venture, Egirl Capital, Bibit-Miranaand others.

– mackerelThe UK-based London preventive health company has raised $19 million in Series A funding. Balderton capital and Pentland Venture Leading the round and participating Aurora VC and Jamjar investment.

– knitthe Austin-based AI-powered platform for consumer market research, has raised $16.1 million in Series A funding. Sound Venture and gft Venture Leading the round and participating silicon road Venture, Osage Venture, Remaining riseand others.

– deep thinkSan Francisco-based Superintelligence Company raised $13 million in Series A funding. benchmark He led the round.

– The planted sunThe Oakland, California-based solar deployment platform raised $12 million from The capital of Piva, Breakthrough Energy Venture, Khosla Ventureand Team Builder Venture.

– Please silenceGraz-based developers, an Austria-based infrastructure for secure calculations with encrypted data, have raised $5.5 million in seed funding. prototype VC Leading the round and participating A16z CSX, Cyber.Fund, A. Capital Venture, Polymorphismand an angel investor.

– thinkthe New York-based AI-powered developer intelligence platform raised $5 million. Mighty capital and Iconiq Capital He led the round.

Private Equity

– Hoffman Family of Companies I’ve got it Atlanta Party Rentalsan event rental service company based in Atlanta. Financial conditions have not been disclosed.

Exit

– Midland industryportfolio company clear capitalobtained Celero brassFrom a St. Louis-based Brass Component Distributor Celoflow productssubsidiary of Marmon Holdings. Financial conditions have not been disclosed.

Fund + Fund Fund

– Silversmith Capital PartnersThe Boston-based private equity firm has raised $1.7 billion for its fifth fund focused on technology and healthcare businesses.

– Frazier Life SciencesThe Palo Alto, California-based venture capital firm has raised $1.3 billion in its 12th fund focused on biopharmaceutical companies.