Lightspeed has increased and changed its investment strategies to fund more startups and to support quality entrepreneurs in India
Venture capital firm, Lightspeed has planned to raise its investments on India’s mushrooming startup segment. Dev Khare, Lightspeed India Partner said that the company’s investment strategy has not changed since it kickstarted in 2006. Its investment plans started from 2015 by extending financial support to companies like business-to-business marketplace Udaan, content platform ShareChat, hotel brand Oyo and education startup Byju’s. These startups together account for about $8.5 billion.
Lightspeed investment partners
Khare highlighted the company’s investment areas over the past years that have been expanding to a wide range of businesses due to evolving trends and newer technologies. Saying that in India, the quality of entrepreneurs has also improved, he further highlighted Lightspeed’s investments since 2015.
The venture capital started off funding with about 20 companies in India in 2015 which valued to a total of $135 million. It added three more partners to its funding team, namely, Akshay Bhushan, Harsha Kumar and Vaibhav Agarwal to build a stronger teamwork with Dev Khare and Bejul Somaia.
The beginning of 2018 witnessed the addition of Hemant Mohapatra, Executive, Andreessen Horowitz to further raise its investments on startups. Earlier in July, Lightspeed announced its investment plan of about $175 million in India.
Current scene
Lightspeed India partners have expanded its network to Bengaluru from Delhi. The two workspaces deal with startup community events like Knowledge Series and Extreme Entrepreneurs to support the ecosystem, apart from paying heed to their needs. Dev Khare, while talking about the returns of the investments, said that the firm was willing to wait for a few more years until it picks up the pace.
He said that the company’s investments done in the first phase would yield benefits in the long run. The Lightspeed India partners would be making its second phase of funding some time later.
