Lightspeed completes $4b global fundraising effort
Lightspeed Venture Partners has raised $4 billion across early and growth-stage funds, including $1.5 billion for an opportunity fund that will support breakout companies in global markets such as China, India and Southeast Asia.
The venture capital firm already has affiliates in China and India with their own pools of capital. Lightspeed China Partners has $1.5 billion in assets under management, having closed its fourth US dollar-denominated fund at $560 million, including a $200 million sidecar for follow-on investments, at the end of 2018. The India business, which was established several years later, has raised $310 million across two funds.
Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Lightspeed has a presence in Israel and Europe as well as in China and India. Singapore is the most recent addition to the network. Lightspeed sometimes invests alongside its local affiliates in later-stage rounds for existing portfolio companies. Recent China examples include IfChange, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, and Laiye Technology, an artificial intelligence (AI) start-up specializing in robotic process automation (RPA).
The Lightspeed Opportunity Fund is intended to make more of these investments, with the firm noting that 2019 was the first year in VC where more breakout companies emerged outside of the US than inside of it. In addition, Lightspeed raised $1.83 billion for its fourth select fund, which backs growth rounds for existing portfolio companies and identifies new investment opportunities across the firm’s global platform. It also closed its 13th US early-stage fund at $890 million.
“Having global expertise is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have if you want to support exceptional entrepreneurs with the ambition to win in their market at any point on their founder journey. Our focus remains the same today as it was in the beginning in 2000 – to invest in outlier founders and innovators building enduring companies across the globe,” Ravi Mhatre, a partner at Lightspeed, said in a statement.
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