Lightspeed Venture Partners
Encyclopedia
Lightspeed Venture Partners is a venture capital
firm focusing on early stage investments in IT companies.
The firm is based in Menlo Park, California
and has raised approximately $2 billion of investor capital since inception across eight venture funds.
as the venture capital arm of a larger investment management business. In October of 2000, its name was changed to Lightspeed Venture Partners, as part of a spin-off from Weiss, Peck & Greer LLC, following the sale of the investment management business to Robeco
.
In 2008, Lightspeed closed an $800 million fund, which brought the firm's committed capital to over $2 billion.
, LivingSocial
and AppDynamics
.
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
firm focusing on early stage investments in IT companies.
The firm is based in Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...
and has raised approximately $2 billion of investor capital since inception across eight venture funds.
History
The firm was founded in 1971, originally as Weiss, Peck & Greer Venture Partners by Stephen H. WeissStephen H. Weiss
Stephen H. Weiss was an American investment banker, philanthropist, and former chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees....
as the venture capital arm of a larger investment management business. In October of 2000, its name was changed to Lightspeed Venture Partners, as part of a spin-off from Weiss, Peck & Greer LLC, following the sale of the investment management business to Robeco
Robeco
Robeco is a Dutch asset management firm founded in 1929 as the Rotterdamsch Beleggings Consortium . By year end 2009, the company had over € 130 billion of assets under management. It was acquired in 2001 by the Rabobank Groep.Robeco offers assets management services to both institutional and...
.
In 2008, Lightspeed closed an $800 million fund, which brought the firm's committed capital to over $2 billion.
Significant Investments
Lightspeed Venture Partners' significant investments include FlixsterFlixster
Flixster is a social movie site allowing users to share movie ratings, discover new movies, learn about movies, and meet others with similar taste in movies. The site allows users to view movie trailers as well as learn about the new and upcoming movies in the box office. The site is based in San...
, LivingSocial
LivingSocial
-Business model:LivingSocial offers a new deal each day to its members who subscribe via email. Once a deal has been purchased, members are e-mailed their redemption vouchers the following business day, around 5 a.m. local time...
and AppDynamics
AppDynamics
AppDynamics, Inc. is an application performance management company headquartered in San Francisco, CA. The company focuses on managing the performance and availability of applications across cloud computing environments as well as inside the data center...
.
External links
- Lightspeed Venture Partners (company website)
- Lightspeed Venture Partners (company blog)