Lightspeed India Partners, a venture capital firm, earlier this week announced that it had raised a $500 million hard-cap, early-stage fund for startups in India and Southeast Asia.
This is a part of over $7 billion that the firm has raised to fund early and growth-stage entrepreneurs around the globe. The fourth fund from Lightspeed India comes at a time when startups are facing a major slowdown in funding as recession fears loom, which has led to even laying off employees by some companies.
Indian Energy Exchange, Oyo, Byju’s, Grab, Acko, Razorpay, Udaan, Sharechat and Innovaccer are some of the companies backed by Lightspeed. Separately, Byju’s is struggling to close a funding round of $800 million, attributing the delay to global “macroeconomic changes”.
Meanwhile, alongside India IV, which is a dedicated early-stage fund vehicle, Lightspeed invests in growth-stage companies in India and Southeast Asia through its select and opportunity fund vehicles, according to a release. Lightspeed has its presence in 28 professionals across four locations, that are Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Singapore. Over the last five years, they have represented one of the largest venture advisory teams in the region, the release added..
Furthermore, the Silicon Valley-headquartered, multi-stage venture capital firm also unveiled Lightspeed Faction, an independent team dedicated to building on the company’s nine-year history of backing exceptional founders in blockchain infrastructure.
