Lightspeed announces close of three funds with over $4 billion corpus

Menlo Park, California headquartered venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners has secured over $4 billion across three of its funds to support early stage startups and accelerate existing portfolio companies.

It launched the Lightspeed Opportunity Fund with a corpus of $1.5 billion to back breakout companies across China, India, Israel, Europe and Southeast Asia, according to a statement.

“Our global portfolio, which spans China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and the US, gives us a view on everything that affects startups, ranging from early regional economic trends; to spotting similar opportunities to serve consumers, small businesses and enterprises seeking new, innovative products across geographies,” Ravi Mhatre, partner at Lightspeed, said.

Email queries sent to Lightspeed India Partners seeking details on the Opportunity Fund’s India exposure remained unanswered till the time of publishing.

In addition to the Lightspeed Opportunity Fund, the firm also announced the close of Lightspeed Venture Partners XIII LP with $890 million to back seed to Series A and B companies. It also closed Lightspeed Venture Partners Select IV LP with $1.83 billion to support growth investments for portfolio companies, the company said.

In July 2018, the venture capital firm raised its second India-dedicated fund of $175 million to back early stage companies in consumer internet, business-to-business (B2B) marketplace, software and fintech segments.

From the second fund, Lightspeed India Partners has backed companies including marketing startup EkAnek Networks and e-sports streaming platform Rheo, according to data on VCCEdge. It also participated in a $15 million Series A funding round in fintech platform Setu. 

The firm raised its maiden fund in India in 2015, with a corpus of $135 million. From this, Lightspeed India Partners backed companies including B2B marketplace Udaan, edtech platform Byju’s and messaging app ShareChat.

The firm recorded $900 million in cash returns from its investments in hospitality chain OYO and edtech platform Byju’s, according to media reports.

It is also reportedly in talks to raise its third India-focused fund with a corpus of $300 million.