Lightspeed raises over USD 4 Billion across three funds

Lightspeed Venture Partners is the latest Silicon Valley firm to close a US$ 1 billion plus fund despite the disruption happening in the startup world it works in. The Menlo Park-based firm claims to raise over US$ 4.2 billion across three funds.

It had previously raised two India-focused funds – US$ 175 million in 2018 and US$ 135 million in 2015, having first entered India in 2007 and investing out of the global fund at the time.

Lightspeed Venture Partners XIII has US$ 890 million for seed, Series A and Series B rounds. Lightspeed Venture Partners Select IV has US$ 1.83 billion to support growth-stage start-ups. A new Lightspeed Opportunity Fund has $1.5 billion to invest in Europe, China, India, Southeast Asia and Israel.

The firm said in a statement that “Taken together, this capital framework across three funds will position the firm to continue to serve founding teams, technologies and trends that are accelerating the innovation economy. Lightspeed remains more committed than ever to the mission of serving the world’s most extraordinary people building tomorrow’s companies, today.”

Lightspeed’s news comes about seven days after another Bay Area firm, Index Ventures, said it brought US$ 2 billion up in new funds to contribute.
Another major Bay Area venture firms to raise megafunds in recent weeks include Menlo Park-based New Enterprise Associates, which announced to secure US$ 3.6 billion last month and Palo Alto based General Catalyst, which last week secured three new funds totaling $2.3 billion .

In spite of the deluge of new money to invest, there are indications that VCs will be stingier this year as they wait to see the lasting impact of the global coronavirus lockdown. And it may become difficult to get new money from limited partners as some of whom are reportedly threatening not to come through with money they pledged before the pandemic.
PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association said this week that there were just nine new funds raised in the first three months of 2020. That compares to more than 49 over the same period in each of the previous three years.

The National Venture Capital Association and PitchBook said for the current week that there were only 9 new investments brought up in the initial three months of 2020. That compares to more than 49 over a similar period in every one of the past three years.