Lightspeed targets $250M for new India fund focusing on early-stage AI

Lightspeed is sharpening its India strategy around AI, targeting $250 million for a new early-stage fund as the venture firm bets the technology will drive the next wave of startups in one of the world’s largest markets. The Silicon Valley venture firm is already a major investor in AI companies including Anthropic, xAI, and Databricks. In India, it has backed Sarvam AI, one of the country’s leading large language model developers and a startup selected by the Indian government to help develop sovereign AI models. The new fund, Lightspeed India Partners V, will be half the size of its $500 million predecessor raised in 2022 and has already secured commitments for 80% of its $250 million target. Lightspeed plans to begin investing from the new fund within two months and has designed it around an investment period of roughly two and a half years. Until then, it will continue making its final investments from the existing fund. Starting with the new fund, Lightspeed is also moving its India funds onto the same fundraising cycle as its global funds for the first time. The change brings a regional business it established nearly two decades ago more closely in line with the rest of the firm. The move follows a similar shift by rival firm Accel, which recently raised its latest $550 million India fund alongside new U.S. and Europe funds as part of a coordinated $3.5 billion fundraising effort.