Background
Rimer was born in Montreal, Canada, and reared and educated (International School of Geneva) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Rimer was born in Montreal, Canada, and reared and educated (International School of Geneva) in Geneva, Switzerland.
He then completed a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School, and upon graduating, chose to return to Europe.
He received a bachelor’s degree in History and Economics from Stanford University, and was a General Course student at the London School of Economics. He then took his first job out of school with Montgomery Securities, an investment bank in San Francisco. He was later quoted by Fortune as reflecting on this move, “I was excited about the idea of participating in the birth of the Venture capital industry in Europe”.
Soon after his return to Geneva, in 1991, Rimer helped his father Gerald exit the bond trading business he had founded, and spent a few years connecting institutional investors with European technology startups, an effort that over time evolved into the official launch of Index Ventures.
Companies funded during this time include Supply Chain Management Microsystems (now Identive) and Virata, a chipmaker, which later entered into a $1.3 Billion merger with GlobeSpan. Notable investments Rimer has been involved with at Index Ventures in the years since include Betfair (London School of Economics: Black Entertainment Television) and Skype (acquired by eBay for $26 billion, later acquired by Microsoft for $85 billion).
Rimer has also invested in and served on the boards of directors of Last.fm (acquired by Columbia Broadcasting System for $280 million), Ofoto (acquired by Kodak), Trolltech (acquired by Nokia for $153 million), Numerical Technologies (acquired by Synopsis for $250 million). Genmab (OMX: GEN); and StepStone.
Rimer currently sits on the board of directors of a number of companies including Funding Circle, HouseTrip, MOO Print, PhotoBox, StackExchange, Supercell, Kaggle, Metromile, and The Climate Corporation (acquired by Monsanto for approximately $11 billion).
Rimer headed the team at Index Ventures that led a $130 million funding round in Supercell, the subject of a May 6, 2013 Forbes article, “Is This the Fastest-Growing Game Company Ever?” In October 2013 Softbank and GungHo Online Entertainment acquired 51% of Supercell for $1.53 billion. He has also served on the European Leadership Council of Harvard Business School and on the board of University College Sampdoria, a football club competing in the Italian Serie A professional football league competition.