# Lightspeed Venture Partners

Lightspeed Venture Partners is an American venture capital firm founded in 2000, focusing on seed, early, and growth investments in enterprise, fintech, consumer, and healthcare sectors, with $35 billion in assets under management as of 2023.

Lightspeed Venture Partners is an American venture capital firm that invests across seed, early, and growth stages in the enterprise, fintech, consumer, and healthcare sectors. As of 2023, the firm managed approximately US$35 billion in assets, with eleven offices globally.

## History

Lightspeed was founded in 2000 by Barry Eggers, Christopher Schaepe, Ravi Mhatre, and Peter Nieh, who previously worked together at Weiss, Peck & Greer and had attended Stanford University. The firm opened its first international office in Tel Aviv in 2006, following the addition of Yoni Cheifetz. In 2008, Bejul Somaia joined to establish the firm's India practice, and a Singapore office was added in 2022. For its first decade, Lightspeed concentrated on enterprise software and infrastructure.

## Investments

Lightspeed has been an early investor in several notable technology companies. In 2002, it led the Series A for Riverbed Technology, which went public in 2006. The firm led Mulesoft's Series B in 2007; Mulesoft IPO'd in 2017 and was acquired by Salesforce for $6.5 billion later that year. Lightspeed led AppDynamics' Series A in 2008, and the company was acquired by Cisco for $3.7 billion in 2017. In 2010, it led Nutanix's Series A, and the company went public in 2017. Lightspeed led Nest's Series B in 2011, and Google acquired Nest for $3.2 billion in cash in 2014. The firm also led Nicira's Series C in 2011, and VMware acquired Nicira in 2012 for $1.2 billion.

In 2012, Lightspeed became the first venture investor in Snap Inc., participating in a $485,000 seed round and later providing bridge funding. At Snap's IPO in 2017, Lightspeed was the fourth-largest shareholder. Lightspeed led Affirm's Series B in 2013, and Affirm went public in 2021 with a market capitalization near $30 billion. The firm led Guardant Health's Series C in 2014, and the company went public in 2018. Lightspeed also led Rubrik's Series A in 2014 and remains its largest shareholder; Rubrik was founded by Bipul Sinha, a former Venture Partner at Lightspeed. In 2015, Lightspeed seeded Forty Seven, which Gilead acquired for $4.9 billion in 2020.

More recently, Lightspeed has been the seed investor in companies such as Navan, Mistral, ThoughtSpot, Ultima Genomics, and Orca Bio. It led the Series A for Glean Technologies and Grafana, the Series B for Faire, and the Series C for Cato Networks. In 2018, Lightspeed invested in Multiverse, a British educational technology company, and reinvested in June 2022 as part of a $220 million round. In February 2026, the firm invested $70 million in Naboo, a French meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) procurement platform.

## Funding

In 2022, Lightspeed raised $7.1 billion across four flagship funds: Lightspeed Venture Partners XIV-A/B, L.P. ("Fund XIV") with $1.98 billion, Lightspeed Venture Partners Select V, L.P. ("Select Fund V") with $2.26 billion, and Lightspeed Opportunity Fund II, L.P. ("Opportunity Fund II") with $2.36 billion. Separately, Lightspeed India Partners announced the closing of a $500 million early-stage fund ("LSIP Fund IV") and a partnership with blockchain firm Lightspeed Faction. In April 2020, the firm had raised $4.2 billion across three funds: $890 million for an early-stage venture fund, $1.83 billion for a growth fund, and $1.5 billion for an opportunity fund. In March 2016, Lightspeed raised two new funds totaling $1.2 billion. In 2014, it closed Lightspeed X, a $1 billion fund focused on enterprise, consumer, and cleantech markets. As of 2012, the firm had $3 billion in committed capital.

## See also

- Venture capital
- [Artificial intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-intelligence)
- [Machine learning](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/machine-learning)
- [Large language model](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/large-language-model)
- [OpenAI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/openai)
- [Anthropic](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/anthropic)
- [Google DeepMind](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/google-deepmind)
- Generative artificial intelligence
- [AMD](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/amd)
- Apple Inc.
- [Samsung Electronics](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/samsung-electronics)
- [Intel](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/intel)
- [TSMC](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/tsmc)
- [Broadcom](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/broadcom)
- [Qualcomm](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/qualcomm)
- [Arm Holdings](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/arm-holdings)
- [Amazon Web Services](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/amazon-web-services)
- [AWS Trainium](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/aws-trainium)
- Microsoft Azure
- [Google Cloud](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/google-cloud)
- [Oracle Cloud](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/oracle-cloud)
- [CoreWeave](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/coreweave)
- [Cerebras](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/cerebras)
- [Groq](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/groq)
- [SambaNova Systems](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/sambanova-systems)
- [Graphcore](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/graphcore)
- [Nokia Bell Labs](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/nokia-bell-labs)
- [Xerox PARC](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/xerox-parc)
- [MIT CSAIL](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/mit-csail)
- [Stanford AI Lab](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/stanford-ai-lab)
- [University of Toronto](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/university-of-toronto)
- [Carnegie Mellon University](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/carnegie-mellon-university)
- [Berkeley AI Research](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/berkeley-ai-research)
- University of Oxford
- DeepMind
- [Waymo](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/waymo)
- [Tesla Autopilot](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/tesla-autopilot)
- Cruise (autonomous vehicle)
- [Neuralink](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/neuralink)
- [Figure AI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/figure-ai)
- [AI21 Labs](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/ai21-labs)
- [Inflection AI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/inflection-ai)
- [Essential AI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/essential-ai)
- [Sanctuary AI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/sanctuary-ai)

## References

1. Lightspeed Venture Partners official website (accessed 2025)
2. Company press releases and public filings (2012–2026)
3. TechCrunch, Bloomberg, and other industry news reports (2014–2026)

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Source: https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/lightspeed-venture-partners
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Last updated: 2026-09-05T13:24:38.431259+00:00