Lightspeed Venture Partners, a global venture capital firm, is raising $675 million for its ninth fund, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Lightspeed is an active venture capital investor in India and currently invests in the country from its global fund.
The VC firm has also boosted its India team by adding Dev Khare as a Principal. Till recently, Khare was a vice-president with Menlo Park-based venture capital firm Venrock.
The new fund’s target is around 15 per cent lower than Lightspeed’s previous fund, which raised $800 million in 2008. The seventh fund had raised $475 million and Lightspeed currently has $2 billion under management.
An e-mail query sent to Lightspeed regarding fundraising details did not elicit a response at the time of filing this article.
Lightspeed recently invested in Craftsvilla.com, an e-commerce portal offering handicraft and natural products. Another recent deal was OneAssist Consumer Solutions, a consumer-focused membership programme. Its other portfolio companies in India include local information portal Asklaila.com, national power exchange Indian Energy Exchange and prepaid cards firm ItzCash.
Last year, Lightspeed exited TutorVista, which was acquired by British media group Pearson Plc., at a valuation of nearly Rs 1,000 crore.
With the addition of Khare as a Principal, Lightspeed might be looking to ramp up its investment pace in the country. Khare obtained his MBA from Harvard Business School, did a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of Business and a BS in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He has extensive experience in areas like product management, marketing and international finance.
Khare was working with Venrock since 2006 and before that, he had co-founded Covigo, a mobile application software company. Covigo was acquired by Symbol in 2003. At Venrock, Khare sat on boards of companies like SlideShare and Aha Mobile.
He had also worked as an investment banker with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and Jefferies & Company. In addition, he had worked for DLJ Merchant Banking (private equity section) and for Aditi Technologies (business process outsourcing and software services).
