Indian venture capital firm Lightspeed India said on Tuesday (Aug. 18) that it has closed its Lightspeed India Partners III fund after securing $275 million in new capital commitments from institutional investors around the world.
Lightspeed already has deployed $750 million in capital in India, the VC firm said in a news release.
The release further stated that Lightspeed "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."
The release noted that since its 2007 founding in India, Lightspeed has invested in: "Byju’s (EdTech), Indian Energy Exchange (Power Marketplace), Innovaccer (Healthcare SaaS), Oyo (Hospitality), Sharechat (Social Media), Udaan (B2B Commerce) and Yellow Messenger (Conversational AI).”
Lightspeed says that more than 80 percent of its investments are early-stage.
Lightspeed's partners include Bejul Somaia, Akshay Bhushan, Harsha Kumar, Dev Khare, Vaibhav Agrawal and Hemant Mohapatra.
The firm addressed the COVID-19 pandemic head-on in describing its plans for deploying the new capital raised for Fund III, stating: "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. Lightspeed believes this is when the best entrepreneurs and companies of the future will emerge. Strong founders are utilizing the tailwinds of India’s digital ecosystem growth to build out a new future, and Lightspeed is strongly committed to backing these founders."
Among the forces driving technical innovation in India, even during COVID-19, is the government's commitment to move commerce away from cash and toward digital methods. The vast majority of transactions in India now occur through cash.
