India's Lightbox closes third VC fund at $209m

The corpus was confirmed in a regulatory filing. A first close of $178 million came in September 2018 with support from 19 LPs, including endowments, fund-of-funds, and family offices, most of which were existing investors. The fundraise was distinguished by increased participation by domestic LPs versus previous funds.

Lightbox raised $100 million for its second fund in 2014, beating a target of $90 million, and extended the program with a $54 million top-up fund in 2016. The firm was spun out from an India joint venture of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and Sherpalo Ventures in 2014 and closed its debut the following year at $38.2 million to take over certain positions in the KPCB-Sherpalo portfolio.

Early investments included GreenDust, an online retailer of refurbished goods that has raised about $50 million, and Zoomin, an online photo printing service that has raised more than $30 million. Fund II expanded on this portfolio with internet consumer plays such as online jewelry retailer Melorra, used-car trading marketplace Droom, and Embibe, an education technology start-up acquired last year for $180 million by Reliance Industries.

Fund III is expected to continue this approach, backing early-stage rounds and making selective follow-on investments for local consumer technology companies. In addition to e-commerce and education, target segments include healthcare, financial services, and various associated technical disciplines like artificial intelligence and data analytics.

Fund III activity to date includes participation in a $4 million Series A round for Nua, a tech-enabled feminine care products maker.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Fundraising
• Venture
• GPs
• India
• Lightbox
• Consumer
• Technology