The closure of the new fund is above the firm's target of $675 million, and brings Lightspeed's base of committed capital to over $2 billion, says the company.
"We are pleased by the strong response from our limited partners. The new fund will leverage our investment platform to support the creation of industry-leading companies in India, China, Israel and the US," Barry Eggers, managing director of the firm said.
Lightspeed has a global investment platform. The company is pursuing a balanced investment programme in India and China, encompassing early-stage technology companies as well as growth-stage companies in product and service businesses.
Lightspeed's investment interest in India is in technology-led opportunities, as well as in non-technology businesses stemming from the strong growth in domestic consumption and infrastructure investment. In the US and Israel, the firm will continue to focus on seed and early-stage companies primarily in IT and cleantech markets, according to the company.
"Lightspeed investment professionals have been investing internationally for over 10 years, and we expect to deploy substantial capital in India given the large number of high quality start-ups and growth companies here," said Srini Vudayagiri, Managing Director, Lightspeed.
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Lightspeed Venture Partners' portfolio in India includes, TutorVista, Four Interactive (the company runs Asklaila.com, a local search engine) and Virsa Systems, a provider of compliance software solutions.
Lightspeed has so far committed $60 million in four companies in India. Vudayagiri said the first two investment happened when the company did not even have an office in India.
"Besides, the size of our previous fund was just $480 million. Now that we have an office here and a full team of experts siting in India, we are looking at increasing our engagement with the companies here, both in the technology and non-technology space."
Within the non-technology areas, Lightspeed is pinning hope in areas like financial secirity, healthcare, media and entertainment, education and training.