Snap success helps venture firm Lightspeed raise $1.8bn for new funds
San Francisco — Venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners has raised $1.8bn to invest in startups from cryptocurrency to beauty supplies, hoping to build on its streak of lucrative bets in companies such as Snap, the firm’s partners told Reuters. Lightspeed has historically been an early-stage investment company and was the first outside investor in Snap’s messaging app Snapchat. But about $1.05bn of the new funding will be earmarked for a separate fund to invest in more mature companies, the partners said on Monday. The dollar amount is more than double the size of its previous growth-stage fund. Lightspeed is eyeing an expansion to Southeast Asia and wants to add investments in cryptocurrency, biotechnology, new TV streaming services and even cosmetics companies. As startups stay private for longer, relying on venture capital rather than the public markets for funding, firms like Lightspeed have to invest repeatedly in a company for years if they want to maintain a large en...
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