Lightspeed Venture Partners expands operations to Southeast Asia

Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners is expanding its operations to Southeast Asia.

With headquarters in Singapore, Lightspeed will partner and support the region’s entrepreneurs building technology-led disruptive companies, the company said in a statement.

Lightspeed will deploy capital for its Southeast Asian investments from its global funds, where it has previously announced having raised over $4 billion in 2020.

Akshay Bhushan and Bejul Somaia are partners at Southeast Asia team of Lightspeed while Pinn Lawjindakul will join as vice president and Marsha Sugana as senior investment associate.

“Southeast Asia is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and startup ecosystems, and this is due in no small part to the region’s extraordinary entrepreneurial talent. We believe the startup ecosystem will continue its significant expansion and are excited to partner with entrepreneurs as they build and scale disruptive companies,” Bhushan said in the statement.

Since 2000, Lightspeed has invested in startups. The company claims that more than 70% of its investments have been in firms at early stages. In Southeast Asia, Lightspeed said it has engaged with ventures right from their early stages that are solving uniquely Asian problems in sectors like commerce, fintech, edtech and SaaS among many others.

Lightspeed has bet on ride-hailing firm Grab, social commerce platform Chilibeli, B2B marketplace app Ula, enterprise artificial intelligence software provider NextBillion.ai as well as fulfilment and shipping gateway company Shipper.

Additionally, many of Lightspeed portfolio companies have regional headquarters in Singapore such as Snap, OYO Rooms, Yellow Messenger and Darwinbox among others.