After a surge of VC investments from the 2021 bubble failed to yield strong returns from many venture firms, limited partners, such as endowments, pension plans, and sovereign wealth funds, began to funnel a greater share of their capital into a select group of established firms with proven track records.
The latest huge capital haul has come to Lightspeed Venture Partners. The 25-year-old venture firm announced Monday that it raised a total of $9 billion in fresh funds, the largest fundraise in firm’s history.
At a time when very few companies have managed to IPO, Lightspeed was an early investor in Rubrik, Netskope, and Navan, all of which have recently made their public market debuts.
The firm has also positioned itself as a predominantly AI-focused investor. Lightspeed claims to have backed 165 AI-native companies, including Anthropic, xAI, Databricks, Mistral, Glean, Abridge, and Skild AI.
Armed with its giant new fund, the firm can continue to make massive investments into capital-intensive AI companies. For instance, Lightspeed reportedly wrote a $1 billion check to Anthropic when it co-led the LLM-maker’s $13 billion investment in September.
Lightspeed’s new capital is spread across six funds, including a $3.3 billion opportunity fund dedicated to follow-on investments in its fastest-growing portfolio companies.
Other large VC firms that have recently raised enormous capital pools include Founders Fund, which earlier this year amassed $4.6 billion for a growth fund; General Catalyst’s $8 billion capital haul and Andreessen Horowitz’s $7.2 billion, both secured in 2024.
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Meanwhile, younger and smaller VC firms are struggling to attract fresh funds. According to PitchBook data, 2025 is on pace to record the fewest VC fund closings in the past 10 years.
