Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas Joins Index Ventures as Partner

Index Ventures, a venture capital firm with offices in London and San Francisco that concentrates its investments in Europe and the United States, has added a new partner to its investment team.

Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas, currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer of London-based fintech company GoCardless and formerly the Chief Product Officer at Skyscanner, will be joining Index Ventures in January, as revealed by TechCrunch.

Gonzalez-Cadenas is a well-established entrepreneur and business leader, and has also been an active angel investor for the past three years, reportedly completing over 50 angel investments across Europe. His involvement has become increasingly visible in European funding announcements, and founders frequently cite him as an early supporter. Consequently, a move to a full-time position within venture capital appears to be a natural progression.

“My involvement as an angel investor has developed naturally over the last three years,” he explained to TechCrunch. “I began with a small number of investments to gauge my interest, and it has steadily grown, along with the number of entrepreneurs I collaborate with. I’ve become increasingly enthusiastic about this path, and it feels like a fitting evolution.”

Gonzalez-Cadenas also describes himself as a highly inquisitive individual, noting that investing provides him with the opportunity to explore diverse industries and business models. “I find this aspect particularly rewarding,” he stated.

Partners at Index Ventures operate across both its venture and growth funds, functioning as a unified team spanning Europe and the U.S., a characteristic that appealed to Gonzalez-Cadenas. The firm also avoids strict specialization among its partners, although each may have particular areas of interest.

“At Index, each partner has core areas of focus, but we maintain a relatively broad perspective,” he clarified. “Regarding my own focus, we are still defining it, but I anticipate concentrating on the software sector, including SaaS, enterprise solutions, and emerging technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence. My primary geographic focus will be Europe.”

Gonzalez-Cadenas founded Fogg, a travel company, in 2008 and sold it to Skyscanner five years later. He subsequently became Skyscanner’s Chief Product Officer, contributing to the company’s “fivefold expansion,” international growth, and product development.

Prior to his role as COO at GoCardless, he held the positions of CPO and CTO, working closely with founder Hiroki Takeuchi. During his tenure, GoCardless experienced significant growth, scaling to a team of 400 employees with substantial international and product advancements.

Gonzalez-Cadenas also highlighted Index Ventures’ willingness to invest at an early stage, including an increasing number of seed investments, even if these are not always publicly announced, as a key factor in his decision to join the firm.

“Index Ventures demonstrates an entrepreneurial approach to risk-taking,” he said. “Many of the companies now achieving significant success within Index’s portfolio – such as Revolut, Robinhood, Deliveroo, Adyen, and Figma – received investment from Index at the seed stage, or early Series A. This aligns with my own investment philosophy. I am driven to support entrepreneurs throughout their journey and make bold, foundational investments, rather than waiting for perfect metrics before committing capital. That is the type of investing I prefer.”