Lightspeed China Partners Seeks $560M For Two New VC Funds

Jason D. Rowley jason_rowley

Earlier this afternoon, Lightspeed China Partners, a Shanghai-headquartered VC firm affiliated with Lightspeed Venture Partners, filed paperwork with the SEC indicating its intent to raise $560 million across two new venture funds.

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The filing for Lightspeed China Partners’s fourth flagship fund, targeting $360 million, was the first to cross the wires. If fully raised, it would be the largest venture fund Lightspeed China Partners has raised to date.

The second filing was for an entity called “Lightspeed China Partners Select I, L.P.,” a $200 million investment vehicle likely targeting follow-on investments in the firm’s best-performing portfolio companies.

So far in 2018, Lightspeed China Partners has invested in a number of big rounds. These include leading a $50 million extension of an already $145 million Series A round raised by Nanjing-based fintech firm Black Fish. The firm also participated in a $100 million Series C raised by financial marketplace eBroker.

Since the firm raised its inaugural fund in 2013, Lightspeed China Partners has enjoyed three portfolio company exits, according to Crunchbase data. These include e-commerce platform Pinduoduo (IPO in July), mobile photo editing and sharing app FaceU (acquired by Toutiao for $300 million), and peer-to-peer lending platform PPDai (IPO).

The filings indicate that no capital has been secured yet for either fund. It’s important to remember that publicly-disclosed fundraising targets are subject to change.

That being said, Lightspeed China Partners is affiliated with a firm that’s no slouch in the VC fundraising market. In July, Lightspeed Venture Partners closed $1.8 billion across its third “select” and twelfth flagship funds. Considering it was 106 days between the initial filings for those funds and the firm’s announcement, it’s safe to say that Lightspeed China Partners will likely close out its fundraising campaign sometime in 2019.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias