Lightspeed Venture Sets Up New Southeast Asia-focused Team to Scale Up Investments in the Region Lightspeed will start operations in Singapore and deploy capital from its global fund of USD 4 billion, which was closed in April this year, to invest in the Southeast Asian market, with key focus on Indonesia and Singapore
By Shipra Singh
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Backer of unicorns Oyo, Udaan and Byju's, Lightspeed Venture Capital is ready to set up base in Singapore to scale up its tech investments in Southeast Asian market.
The early stage venture capital firm will deploy capital from its global fund of USD 4 billion, which was closed in April this year, to invest in the Southeast Asian market, with key focus on Indonesia and Singapore.
"Southeast Asia is one of the world's fastest-growing economies and startup ecosystems, and this is due in no small part to the region's extraordinary entrepreneurial talent. We believe the startup ecosystem will continue its significant expansion and are excited to partner with entrepreneurs as they build and scale disruptive companies," said Akshay Bhushan, Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Lightspeed Ventures has already made investments in some of the prominent tech startups in the Southeast Asian market, including the likes of ride-hailing company Grab (Singapore), social commerce platform Chilibeli (Indonesia), hospitality major Oyo Rooms (India), B2B marketplace app Ula (Indonesia), B2B commerce platform Udaan (India) and enterprise artificial intelligence software provider NextBillion.ai (Singapore), among others.
In India alone, the VC firm has pumped over USD 750 million through two India-dedicated funds and its global arm. Earlier in August, the firm announced close of its third India-focused fund at USD 275 million.
Also Read: Lightspeed Closes Third India-focused Fund With $275 Mn
Lightspeed has early on backed some of the tech startups that have overtime grown to become unicorns—startups valued at over USD 1 billion—or are soon to be unicorns, including education technology startup Byju's, hospitality major Oyo, and B2b e-commerce platform Udaan, and power marketplace Indian Energy Exchange.
The company said many of its portfolio companies are scaling up business in Southeast Asia and have regional headquarters in Singapore, such as Snap (company behind Snapchat), OYO Rooms, Yellow Messenger and Darwinbox among others.
"With a large, tech-savvy and young population, Southeast Asia is leading the charge in technology-driven innovation. We have a strong belief in the opportunities here and the capabilities that founders of this region have demonstrated," said Bejul Somaia, Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners.
The firm's Southeast Asia's operations will be steered by Pinn Lawjindakul, Marsha Sumana, Akshay Bhushan and Baijul Somaia.
Since its inception in 2000, Lightspeed has invested in over 300 companies globally, including marquee firms like Snap, GrubHub, Nest, Nutanix, AppDynamics, and MuleSoft and currently manages over USD10 billion of committed capital.
"Our mission at Lightspeed has stayed the same, even as our global presence has expanded from Silicon Valley, Israel and China to India, Europe and now Southeast Asia: to support the bold entrepreneurs who are building tomorrow's companies today," said Ravi Mhatre, Founder and Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partners.
