Lightspeed is raising $250 million for Lightspeed India Partners V, a new early-stage fund dedicated entirely to AI companies across India and Southeast Asia, according to an investor letter. The fund has already secured commitments for 80% of its target and is half the size of its $500 million predecessor raised in 2022.
The investment thesis anticipates AI creating more value in India than the internet did. While India has yet to produce a major frontier model developer and attracts far less AI investment than the U.S. and China, investors increasingly see opportunity at the application layer, drawing on the country’s deep pool of software developers. Lightspeed, an investor in Anthropic, xAI and Databricks, has also backed Sarvam AI, which the Indian government selected to help develop sovereign AI models.
Lightspeed said the smaller size matches its current investment pace and a shorter period of about two and a half years, allowing it to focus on individual deals and raise again sooner. Investing will begin within two months, and the India funds will move onto the same fundraising cycle as its global funds for the first time, following a similar move by rival Accel.
The fund marks a sharper thematic shift for a regional portfolio that has spanned companies such as Zepto, Pocket FMand SolarSquare. The team behind its previous four India funds will manage it.
