Both will be seeking investments in green tech, deep tech, enterprise tech, health tech and consumer tech, the firm said
Lightspeed China Partners, the China-focused vehicle of Lightspeed Venture Partners, said Tuesday it has closed the largest fundraising rounds in its history. The new injection came under three years after its last raise in early 2019.
The capital went towards two funds which include Lightspeed China Partners V with $460 million for early-stage startups and Lightspeed China Partners Select II with $460 million for growth-stage opportunities. Both will be seeking investments in green tech, deep tech, enterprise tech, health tech and consumer tech, the firm said.
Lightspeed Venture Partners, based in Silicon Valley, started in 1999 and has gradually extended its footprint to Israel, India, Europe, Southeast Asia and China, where it began investing in 2006. Lightspeed China has since built up a local investment team like its counterparts IDG and Sequoia. In the past five years, the firm saw a number of notable IPOs, including e-commerce giants Pinduoduo and Meituan, freight matching platform Full Truck Alliance, and electric vehicle upstart Xpeng.
Alongside its landmark raise, Lightspeed China also added five new partners. Jia Zhu, Francis Kao and Jason Wang were promoted to partners. It also brought in two new partners — Wei Cai and Daniel Sun. Wei Cai was previously responsible for Alibaba’s investment in deep tech, while Daniel Sun jointly led investments in the consumer and TMT (technology, media, and telecom) sectors at the China Renaissance New Economy Fund.
The firm’s two new funds were oversubscribed, which is evidence of the strong support garnered from returning and new institutional limited partners across the U.S., Europe and Asia, said James Mi, who helped Google build its China offshoot before founding Lightspeed China.
