Venture firm raises new funds for growth-stage startups

VENTURE capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners has raised US$1.8bil to invest in startups from cryptocurrency to beauty supplies, hoping to build on its streak of lucrative bets in companies such as Snap Inc, the firm’s partners told Reuters.

Lightspeed has historically been an early-stage investment firm and was the first outside investor in Snap’s messaging app Snapchat. But about US$1.05bil of the new funding will be earmarked for a separate fund to invest in more mature companies, the partners said. The dollar amount is more than double the size of its previous growth-stage fund.