Lightspeed India raises new fund with USD 275 mn commitment

“Lightspeed India Partners has raised its new fund Lightspeed India Partners III with a commitment of USD 275 million from global institutional LPs,” the release said. (Representational image)

Venture capital firm Lightspeed India Partners on Tuesday said it has raised new fund with USD 275 million (about Rs 2,054 crore) of committed capital. Lightspeed India is focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the enterprise and consumer sectors. It has invested over USD 750 million in the country till now.

With the new fund–Lightspeed India Partners III–it will continue to partner and support bold entrepreneurs building for tomorrow, right from inception through growth stages, it said in a release. Since 2007, Lightspeed India has backed entrepreneurs and companies, including OYO, Byju’s, Udaan and Sharechat.

“Lightspeed India Partners has raised its new fund Lightspeed India Partners III with a commitment of USD 275 million from global institutional LPs,” the release said. Lightspeed India said it remains sharply focused on early stage seed and Series A investments and will work with its founders through the lifecycle including growth stage and global network support.

“This year began with a crisis like no other. It is always tough to start a company, it requires passion and leadership – and in these times, it requires more courage than ever before,” it said and added this is when the best entrepreneurs and companies of the future will emerge.

“Strong founders are utilising the tailwinds of India’s digital ecosystem growth to build out a new future and Lightspeed is strongly committed to backing these founders,” it said. Lightspeed said it will continue to focus on early stages of innovation, and work with founders to support them through their growth lifecycle, including the growth capital pool of over USD 3 billion raised recently in its global funds.

“With the Indian digital opportunity accelerating, many more sectors in B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer) and categories are emerging where technology is enabling new businesses and models. Startups need more broad-based operational engagement” it added.