As they say, technology can never be stopped. The potential in tech-startup space is not just on the book, but very apparent in those wishing to hold a stake in it. And highlighting the same, Lightspeed Venture partners, the veteran Silicon Valley-based venture capital fund, has closed its funding round for LSIP Fund IV at $500 Mn, which the VC will be infusing into growth-stage startups in India and Southeast Asia. This was announced as a part of the larger $7Bn close that Lightspeed has achieved across all of its new funds.
Lightspeed is the latest to raise substantial capital for investment in startups, and despite the prevalent funding crunch, has joined the likes of Accel Ventures, Sequoia and others, to have continued to raise substantial capital for early to late stage startup investments.
The fund is a part of a collection of separate funds that raised a total of $7Bn today. While the overall capital management for Lightspeed has increased by 60%, it’s India fund has also managed to make a monumental leap from its previous collection of $275 Mn in 2020.
In an interview, Bejul Somalia, partner and part of global leadership team for Lightspeed, said “The opportunity continues to broaden in scope. We think that founder quality and founders are really the raw materials of this business and that continues to improve. Last year, there were some proof points in terms of getting venture backed companies public. All of these developments give us confidence in the India and Southeast Asia community. As companies build for bigger opportunities, they need more capital and so to execute the same strategy, you would need a larger capital base in any case.”
The fund will be distributed in startups between the seed and series B stages, with cheque sizes ranging from $500,000 to $15 Mn. LSIP Fund IV joins Accel, Elevation Capital and Sequoia Capital’s latest moves indication a remnant optimism in early stage Startups, as established late stage Startups continue to face pressure to reach profitability.
Apart from LSIP Fund IV, Lightspeed also raised large sums of capital for its other funds including Lightspeed Venture Partners XIV-A/B ($1.98 Bn, focused on Enterprise, Healthcare, Fintech and consumer tech), Lightspeed Venture Partners Select V ($2.26 Bn, distributes capital among high performing companies already in Lightspeed’s portfolio) and Lightspeed Opportunity Fund II ($2.36 Bn, focused on global multi-stage investment).
