Venture capital fund · 7 deals
Montreal
Every published round Lightspeed took part in, and every parcel of existing shares it bought off another holder. Deals we hold but haven't published yet are not counted.
Companies Lightspeed has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
| Company | What it does | First invested | Rounds | Led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carted | Apr 2021, Seed | 1 | 0 | |
| Forage | 2020, Accelerator | 3 | 0 | |
| Granola | Mar 2026, Series C | 1 | 0 | |
| Marqo | 19 Feb 2024, Series A | 1 | 1 | |
| Nexthop AI | Mar 2026, Series B | 1 | 1 |
Fund closes reported for Lightspeed, as distinct from the investments it has made.
| Fund | Announced | Committed | Target | Close | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venture Partners Fund XV-A | 16 Dec 2025 | $980m | - | Final | valueaddvc.com, thetechportal.com |
| Opportunity Fund III | 16 Dec 2025 | $3.3b | - | Final | valueaddvc.com, thetechportal.com |
Companies Lightspeed has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal Lightspeed did.
| Company | Bought by | Kind | Announced | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No portfolio company of Lightspeed is recorded as having been acquired. | ||||
Companies Lightspeed acquired or merged with, per published coverage. Buying a company is not investing in one: nothing here counts in the deals column.
| Company | Kind | Announced | Price | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vend | Acquisition | 23 Dec 2021 | US$350m ($482m) | Square Peg Capital, SmartCompany (Thu 10 Jun 2021), Startup Daily, SmartCompany (Thu 25 Mar 2021), Square Peg Capital portfolio |
| Name | Role | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Bejul Somaia | Partner and Leader | thetechportal.com, asiatechdaily.com |
| Dax Dasilva | CEO | Square Peg Capital portfolio |
| Francis Malloch-Boe | Engineer (former) | Forbes Australia |
| Ravi Mhatre | Founder and Partner | thetechportal.com, asiatechdaily.com |
Stories naming Lightspeed. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Zeller has rolled out a point-of-sale application for small Australian businesses, replacing subscription pricing with per-transaction charges and adding an AI assistant inside its merchant dashboard.
Analysis of Lightspeed Venture Partners' 2026 close of three funds totalling nine billion dollars, its backer base, AI allocation, portfolio outcomes and comparisons with other big venture firms.
AI notepad maker Granola announced a $125 million Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation, led by Index Ventures with Kleiner Perkins and returning backers, alongside new features for sharing meeting context.
Also shopifreaks.com
Nexthop AI, which builds networking gear for AI data centres, has banked $500 million in a Lightspeed-led round valuing it at $4.2 billion, and showed off three new switches.
Lightspeed has closed over nine billion dollars across six new funds, its largest fundraising ever, spanning early to late stage, with the opportunity fund mainly for follow-ons into its portfolio companies.
Also valueaddvc.com
Lightspeed has closed over $9 billion across six vehicles, its largest-ever fundraise; the story ties the trend to LPs backing bigger firms and AI bets, and recalls IPOs by Rubrik, Netskope and Navan.
Also thetechportal.com
Forbes Australia profiles Butter, a year-old Melbourne app fighting loneliness through in-person gatherings, now at 10,000 users with $260,000 from backer Antler at a roughly $2.2 million valuation.
Travel giant Oyo's purchase of local rental manager MadeComfy tops $50 million; founders remain as co-CEOs, and the piece recalls earlier raises and rival sector deals.
Also Startup Daily·bwdisrupt.com·vrinsider.com·community.verified.realestate
Build Club and AWS are launching a six-week Sydney accelerator for 15 technical founders in AI, offering credits, mentoring and a US tour, with two founders already chosen.
Australian job-simulation edtech Forage has been bought by US education company EAB on undisclosed terms; the story also recalls its accelerator days and earlier venture raises.
Also Startup Daily
Australian startups Diraq, Marqo, and Hatch secured funding rounds. Ansarada was acquired by Datasite. Bupa launched a new venture fund, and the Queensland government backed several VCs and accelerators.
Australian vector search firm Marqo has banked US$12.5 million in a Series A headed by Lightspeed, with Blackbird, January Capital and an individual backer taking part, and is shifting its base to San Francisco.
Also Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Early VC
OIF Ventures' year in review: full Eftsure exit, Opportunity Fund close, Visory, DataMasque and Nullify backed, follow-ons at Inspace and Dataweavers, new team members and portfolio milestones.
Profiles three founders: Kismet's Mark Woodland ($4m pre-seed for disability-services software), Forage's Tom Brumskill and Pasha Rayan (job-simulation platform, Series A and B), and Diolog's Amy Benson (self-funded investor-communications startup planning a seed round).
Square Peg Capital's year-in-review recaps its 2021 portfolio: raises it led or joined, SPAC listing decisions, Vend's acquisition, new investment-team hires, and its newsletter and podcast output.
Also Startup Daily·RenewEconomy·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Techboard·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·RenewEconomy·myzeller.com·Australian FinTech·Women's Agenda·Startup News (WA)·Australian FinTech·Tech Funding News - Australia·Australian FinTech·Australian FinTech·Australian FinTech·@AuManufacturing·Tech Funding News - Australia·Australian FinTech·Forbes Australia·Dealroom·Forbes Australia·TechCrunch Venture·TechCrunch Venture·TechCrunch Venture·TechCrunch Venture·Crunchbase News·TechCrunch Venture·TechCrunch Venture·Crunchbase News·TechCrunch Venture·TechCrunch Venture·TechCrunch Venture·TechCrunch Venture·SmartCompany·TechCrunch Venture·TechCrunch Venture
Blackbird's investment note announcing it led Forage's US$25 million Series B alongside Lightspeed, Funders Club and new backers, with Tom Humphrey joining the board, plus a profile of Forage's preskilling platform.
Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Forbes Australia
Skills-training platform Forage, which builds virtual work experience programs with employers, has raised a US$25 million Series B led by Blackbird Ventures, roughly a year after its US$9.3 million Series A.
Also Startup Daily
Swedish communications firm Sinch is buying Melbourne-based MessageMedia for US$1.3 billion, in an article rounding up a surge of Australian tech acquisitions including A Cloud Guru, Big Ant, Neto and Vend.
Roundup of overseas tech news: Deliveroo's London debut disappoints, Spotify acquires sports-audio firm Betty Labs, Apple posts record quarterly revenue, and Cameo's Series C makes it a unicorn.
A roundup of recent Australian tech acquisitions: Vend, Neto, Powered Local, Insync and Earnd have been bought, while Xero is purchasing Planday and plans to acquire Tickstar.
Weekly roundup by Ignition Lane covering Vend's sale to Lightspeed, Roblox's listing, raises at Pipe, DataGrail, Mastt, Sonnant and Corvus, LaunchVic's new fund for women founders, and Scale Investors' new co-CEOs.
Also Startup Daily·LaunchVic
Square Peg reflects on eight years backing Vend as Lightspeed agrees to acquire the Auckland retail-software company, with the deal expected to complete in roughly six weeks.
Also Square Peg Capital portfolio·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany
Roundup: Split Payments promotes a new C-suite; Hubilo raises a US$23.5m Series A; Next.e.GO banks €30m; Lexer lands a $33.5m Series B; Zip posts a heavy loss; Kogan.com adds two directors.
Weekly roundup reporting Salesforce's Slack acquisition, several ASX listings, multiple Australian startup raises, OneVentures' fund tranche close, and international deals including Facebook buying Kustomer.
Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily
Blackbird introduces Tom Humphrey and Michael Tolo as new investment Principals alongside Tip Piumsomboon, and notes its fourth fund closed at $650 million in late 2020.
Blackbird, the Australian venture firm, says it will expand to New Zealand with a new early-stage fund, an Auckland office, and its Sunrise conference, while recalling its early backing of companies including Canva.
Daily tech roundup covering Walmart's engineering workforce, Udaan's US$585 million Series D, Dyson abandoning its electric vehicle project, criticism of AirPods battery waste, and Zip's leadership hires plus acquisitions of PartPay and Spotcap.