Lightspeed Venture Partners
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Lightspeed Venture Partners is a global, multi-stage venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, that by the end of 2025 managed more than $40 billion in assets and ranked among the most aggressive backers of the artificial intelligence wave.[1][19] Founded in 2000, the firm says it has invested more than $5.5 billion across 165 AI-native companies since 2012, leading or co-leading rounds for Anthropic, Mistral AI, and Glean, and it led Anthropic's $3.5 billion Series E in March 2025, the firm's single largest AI bet.[1][6] Two structural shifts defined Lightspeed in 2025: its conversion into a registered investment adviser, which lifted regulatory limits on how much capital it could put outside direct startup equity, and a record fundraise of more than $9 billion closed that December, the biggest in its history.[3][1] "AI is the most transformative technology shift in a generation," co-founder Ravi Mhatre said in announcing that close, "and Lightspeed has been investing behind this conviction for years."[1]
The firm invests across enterprise software, consumer technology, fintech, healthcare, defense, and infrastructure, with a heavy concentration since the early 2020s on AI. It runs a federated structure spanning the United States, India, Israel, Europe, and Southeast Asia.[1] Lightspeed's early reputation rested on enterprise and infrastructure bets such as Riverbed Technology, Nutanix, MuleSoft, AppDynamics, and Affirm, alongside consumer winners like Snap and Nest.[19] Over the 2023 to 2026 period it became one of the most active backers of the generative AI wave, writing some of the largest single checks in private technology.
Lightspeed was founded in 2000 by four investors who had worked together in the venture arm of the asset manager Weiss, Peck & Greer: Barry Eggers, Ravi Mhatre, Christopher Schaepe, and Peter Nieh.[19] The founders set out to back enterprise infrastructure and technology companies at the earliest stages. Lightspeed's first marquee investment came in 2002, a Series A in Riverbed Technology, a wide-area-network optimization startup that went public in 2006.[19] Other formative bets included the data-center company Nutanix, the integration-software maker MuleSoft, which Salesforce acquired for $6.5 billion in 2018, the application-performance company AppDynamics, and the connected-home maker Nest, which Google bought for $3.2 billion in 2014.[19] The firm also made an early seed investment in Snap, the parent of Snapchat, which became one of its best-known consumer returns after Snap went public in 2017. Lightspeed partner Jeremy Liew is widely credited with that bet, where an initial check of a few hundred thousand dollars grew into one of the firm's signature outcomes. Across its first two decades Lightspeed broadened from pure enterprise investing into consumer, fintech, and healthcare, and built a portfolio that the firm says includes roughly 100 companies valued at more than a billion dollars apiece and dozens of public listings and acquisitions.[20]
Lightspeed was one of the earlier US venture firms to build a genuinely international footprint. It opened a Tel Aviv office in 2006 to access Israel's startup ecosystem, a practice long associated with partner Yoni Cheifetz.[19] In 2008 it established an India presence under Bejul Somaia, who built the practice from the ground up.[19] In 2019 the firm opened its first European office in London and later added Berlin in 2022 and a presence in Paris, the latter reinforced by its early lead investment in Mistral AI.[20] In September 2020 it expanded into Southeast Asia with a Singapore base. By 2023 Lightspeed operated roughly eleven offices worldwide, including Menlo Park, San Francisco, New York, and Boston in the United States.[20]
The firm operates as a federated set of advisers rather than a single fund. The US, European, and Israeli activities sit under Lightspeed Management Company, L.L.C., while the India and Southeast Asia activities sit under Lightspeed India Partners, L.L.P.[5] The two are described as distinct investment advisory entities that operate independently of one another, a structure that lets each region raise and deploy dedicated capital while sharing the Lightspeed brand and network.[5]
Lightspeed's fund sizes have scaled steeply over time. In 2020 it raised about $4.2 billion across three vehicles. In 2022 it closed roughly $7.1 billion across four funds, including a flagship early-stage Fund XIV near $2 billion, a Select growth fund above $2 billion, an Opportunity fund of similar size, and a dedicated India fund. By the time it registered as an investment adviser in the spring of 2025, Bloomberg reported the firm managed around $31 billion.[3]
The firm's largest single fundraise came on December 15, 2025, when it announced the close of more than $9 billion across six vehicles, the biggest capital raise in its then 25-year history.[1][2] The six funds were Lightspeed Venture Partners Fund XV-A at $980 million, Fund XV-B at $1.2 billion, Lightspeed Select VI at $1.8 billion, Lightspeed Opportunity Fund III at $3.3 billion, Lightspeed Co-Investment Fund I at $600 million, and a set of single-investor vehicles raised in 2025 totaling about $1.25 billion.[1] Limited partners disclosed in public pension filings included the New Mexico State Investment Council, the Texas County and District Retirement System, the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, and the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System.[2] With the new capital, Lightspeed said it managed more than $40 billion in assets globally, with the Opportunity Fund III earmarked for follow-on checks into its fastest-growing portfolio companies.[1] Partner Bejul Somaia called the raise "the strongest and most strategic fundraise in Lightspeed's history," adding that the firm was "executing against a future that looks very different from the past, and is informed by first-principles thinking, not an adherence to convention."[1]
In the spring of 2025, Lightspeed completed a conversion into a registered investment adviser, confirmed through a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and reported by Bloomberg on May 1, 2025.[3][5] At the time the firm managed roughly $31 billion.[3] The change followed similar moves by Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and General Catalyst, and made Lightspeed one of the last of the largest venture firms to shift away from the traditional venture structure.[3][4]
The motivation is regulatory. Firms that rely on the venture capital adviser exemption may put no more than 20 percent of a fund's capital into assets that are not direct startup equity.[3] Registering as an investment adviser removes that ceiling.[3] The conversion gives Lightspeed freedom to deploy far more capital into secondary shares, crossover and late-stage positions, public equities, and other alternative assets including cryptocurrencies.[4] In practice it lets the firm keep buying into its winners well beyond a traditional Series A or B, hold positions through and after public listings, and participate in the secondary market for shares of late-stage private companies.[4] That flexibility has become central to Lightspeed's AI strategy, where staying invested across multiple multibillion-dollar rounds in a single company requires the ability to write very large, repeated checks.
Lightspeed says it has invested more than $5.5 billion across 165 AI-native companies since 2012, the year it made its first dedicated AI bet, with the majority of that capital committed at the seed, Series A, and Series B stages.[1] The portfolio now spans foundation models, enterprise AI, defense, robotics, and AI-native fintech.
The firm's flagship AI relationship is with Anthropic, the developer of the Claude family of models and a leading rival to OpenAI. Lightspeed led Anthropic's $3.5 billion Series E, announced on March 3, 2025 at a $61.5 billion post-money valuation, as the largest investor in the round.[6][7][9] At the time of that round, Bloomberg reported Anthropic's annual revenue run rate was up about 30 percent in 2025 from roughly $1 billion in late 2024.[9] Reporting at the time noted the deal began in late 2024 as a Lightspeed-led offer near $2 billion at a $60 billion valuation before growing into the larger Series E.[10] Lightspeed then returned as a co-lead of Anthropic's $13 billion Series F, announced September 2, 2025 at a $183 billion post-money valuation.[8] That round was led by ICONIQ and co-led by Fidelity Management and Research Company and Lightspeed, with Lightspeed reported to have committed roughly $1 billion.[8] The investments were led on Lightspeed's side by co-founder Ravi Mhatre.[6]
In Europe, Lightspeed led the June 2023 seed round of Mistral AI, the Paris-based foundation-model company founded weeks earlier by Arthur Mensch, Timothee Lacroix, and Guillaume Lample.[11][12] At about 105 million euros, it was reported as the largest seed round in European history at the time and valued Mistral near 240 million euros.[11][12] The firm is also a longtime backer of enterprise AI search company Glean, where it co-led the roughly $15 million Series A in 2019 and followed on through later rounds; Lightspeed's relationship with Glean founder Arvind Jain dated back to his time as a founding engineer at Riverbed and a co-founder of Rubrik.[13] In defense, Lightspeed is an investor in Helsing, Europe's largest AI defense company, participating in its 450 million euro Series C in July 2024 and its 600 million euro Series D in June 2025, the latter led by Daniel Ek's Prima Materia at a 12 billion euro valuation.[14][15] Other AI holdings include Databricks, Elon Musk's xAI, generative-media company Stability AI, healthcare-AI scribe Abridge, robotics-foundation-model startup Skild AI, and AI-native finance platform Ramp. Lightspeed led Ramp's $300 million financing in November 2025 that lifted the spend-management company to a $32 billion valuation, up from $22.5 billion just three months earlier.[18][16][17] Recent public exits with AI exposure include the data-security company Rubrik, which listed in 2024, plus Netskope and Navan, both of which went public in 2025.
The table below summarizes notable AI investments with Lightspeed's role attributed to the round in question.
| Company | Round / Year | Lightspeed's role |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | Series E, March 2025 ($3.5B at $61.5B post-money) | Lead investor |
| Anthropic | Series F, September 2025 ($13B at $183B post-money) | Co-lead with ICONIQ and Fidelity, about $1B |
| Mistral AI | Seed, June 2023 (about 105M euros) | Lead investor |
| Glean | Series A, 2019 (about $15M) | Co-lead, plus later follow-ons |
| Ramp | Financing, November 2025 ($300M at $32B valuation) | Lead investor |
| Helsing | Series C 2024 and Series D 2025 (450M and 600M euros) | Participating and existing investor |
| Stability AI | 2022 round (about $101M) | Co-investor with Coatue |
| Databricks | Series J, December 2024 (about $62B valuation) | Investor |
| xAI | 2024 to 2025 (about $50B valuation) | Investor |
| Abridge | Series D, February 2025 ($250M, co-led by Elad Gil and IVP) | Participating investor |
Lightspeed is led by a deep partner bench rather than a single dominant figure. Co-founder Ravi Mhatre remains one of the most senior partners and drives much of the firm's AI and enterprise work, including the Anthropic and Mistral relationships and earlier bets such as Nutanix and AppDynamics.[6] Fellow co-founders Barry Eggers, Christopher Schaepe, and Peter Nieh helped define the firm's enterprise roots.[19] Bejul Somaia, who built the India practice from 2008, is now a senior leader on AI and helped frame the firm's December 2025 fundraise as its most strategic to date.[1] On the consumer side, Nicole Quinn, a former Morgan Stanley equities analyst who worked on the Facebook, Groupon, and Pandora public offerings, has led investments in brands such as Calm and Cameo.[20] Jeremy Liew, the partner behind the Snap bet, stepped back from new investing while retaining board roles, and Mercedes Bent, one of the few Black women investing at a multibillion-dollar US venture firm, moved to a venture partner role in 2025. The Anthropic deals were authored on the firm's side by Mhatre alongside investors Guru Chahal and Sebastian Duesterhoeft, reflecting the team-based approach Lightspeed brings to its largest commitments.[6]
Taken together, the 2025 registration as an investment adviser and the record fund close positioned Lightspeed among the small group of mega-scale venture firms, alongside Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, and General Catalyst, that have restructured to compete for the very largest AI rounds.[3][1] The firm's stated thesis, articulated by Mhatre and Somaia, is that the shift to an intelligence economy rewards investors who can back category leaders early and then keep funding them through repeated capital-intensive rounds, a model the firm now has both the structure and the capital to pursue.[1]