Lightspeed Venture Partners

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a global venture capital firm that backs startups across enterprise software, consumer technologies, fintech, healthtech, and cleantech from seed through growth stages. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, it maintains offices in Beijing, Shanghai, New Delhi, and Herzliya to engage markets in the United States, Asia, and Israel. The firm focuses on technology-enabled businesses and has supported companies across software, mobile, data, e-commerce, and services, spanning early-stage to expansion rounds. It offers strategic guidance, network access, and capital, and has historically included debt financing as part of its investment approach. With a multi-region footprint and a broad multi-stage mandate, Lightspeed seeks to partner with entrepreneurs to scale innovative companies globally.

Shaurya Aggarwal

Partner

Vaibhav Agrawal

Venture Partner

Moritz Baier-Lentz

Partner

Mercedes Bent

Partner

Luke Beseda

Partner

Akshay Bhushan

Partner

Taggart Bonham

Partner

Ashley Brasier

Partner

Cai Wei

Partner

Guru Chahal

Partner

Yoni Cheifetz

Partner

Yoni Cheifetz

Partner

Amish Desai

Partner

Sebastian Duesterhoeft

Partner

Barry Eggers

Partner

Sam Eisler

Partner

Sam Eisler

Partner

James Ephrati

Partner

Faraz Fatemi

Partner

Jack Fowler

Partner

Aaron Frank

Venture Partner

Adam Goldberg

Venture Partner

Merci Grace

Partner

Globin Guo

Executive Director

Gaurav Gupta

Partner

David Gussarsky

Partner

Herry Han

Co-Founder and Partner

Lisa Han

Partner

Rob Horton JD

COO

Hu Peipei

Investment Manager

Galym Imanbayev MD

Partner

Galym Imanbayev

Partner

Nnamdi Iregbulem

Partner

Arif Janmohamed

Partner

Julie Kainz

Partner

Francis Kao

Partner

Ansaf Kareem

Partner

Alex Kayyal

Partner

Dev Khare

Partner

Issac Kim

Partner

Will Kohler

Partner

Harsha Kumar

Associate Partner

Pachara Lawjindakul

Partner

Pachara Lawjindakul

Partner

Will Leas

Partner

Jeremy Liew

Partner

Connor Love

Partner

John Luongo

Venture Partner

Natalie Luu

Partner

Jonathan MacQuitty

Partner

Naveed Matinfar

Partner

Ravi Mhatre

Managing Director

James Mi

Partner

Hemant Mohapatra

Partner

Andrew Moley

Operating Partner and CFO

Tal Morgenstern

Partner

Antoine Moyroud

Partner

Paul Murphy

Partner

Justin Overdorff

Partner

Zac Pan

Associate Partner

Apoorva Pandhi

Associate

Krish Parikh

Partner of Business Services

Nicole Quinn

General Partner

Adrian Nicholas Radu

Partner

Chris Schaepe

Co-Founder

Alexander Schmitt

Partner

Semil Shah

Venture Partner

Shan Shan

Partner

Justin Shen

Partner

Justin Shen

Partner

Shuvi Shrivastava

Partner

Ishaan Preet Singh

Investor

Bipul Sinha

Venture Partner

Bejul Somaia

Partner

Ajay Sudan

Venture Partner

Sun Daniel

Partner

Sydney Sykes

Partner

Alex Taussig

Partner

John Thompson

Venture Partner

John Thompson

Venture Partner

Anoushka Vaswani

Partner

Jason Wang

Partner

Nathan Wang

Vice President

Nathan Wu

Partner

Mark Xu

Partner

Mark Xu

Partner

Cici Yang

Vice President

Jerry Ye

Partner, Data Platform

Haowei Zhai

Vice President

Ju Zhang

Executive Director

Issac Zhang

Vice President

Gavin Zhu

Partner

Past deals in Autonomous Vehicles

Saronic Technologies

Series C in 2025
Saronic Technologies specializes in the design and manufacture of advanced unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). These vehicles are equipped with cutting-edge hardware, software, and artificial intelligence, creating a scalable and integrated platform for enhancing maritime security and domain awareness. Tailored for defense and surveillance applications, Saronic's products offer comprehensive operational capabilities to naval and maritime forces.

Saronic Technologies

Series B in 2024
Saronic Technologies specializes in the design and manufacture of advanced unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). These vehicles are equipped with cutting-edge hardware, software, and artificial intelligence, creating a scalable and integrated platform for enhancing maritime security and domain awareness. Tailored for defense and surveillance applications, Saronic's products offer comprehensive operational capabilities to naval and maritime forces.

Saronic Technologies

Series A in 2023
Saronic Technologies specializes in the design and manufacture of advanced unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). These vehicles are equipped with cutting-edge hardware, software, and artificial intelligence, creating a scalable and integrated platform for enhancing maritime security and domain awareness. Tailored for defense and surveillance applications, Saronic's products offer comprehensive operational capabilities to naval and maritime forces.

Ruitai Microelectronics

Series A in 2023
Ruitai Microelectronics is a domestic supplier of high-performance analog and analog-digital hybrid chips for intelligent networked vehicles.

DAISCH

Series A in 2022
DAISCH, established in 2015 and headquartered in Shanghai, China, specializes in high-precision motion and position sensing systems and tool chains for autonomous driving. The company offers industrial unmanned aerial vehicles and autonomous vehicles, leveraging technologies such as carrier phase differential, inertial navigation, and machine vision to provide precise positioning and environmental information for self-driving vehicles across varied road conditions.

CenoBots (Cenozoic Robotics)

Series A in 2022
Cenozoic Robotics is a global leading provider for the cleaning industry. Founded in 2021, Cenozoic Robotics is headquartered in Singapore with offices in Hong Kong and Hangzhou. Employing knowledge and experience in L4 autonomous driving technology, the Cenozoic team realized the potential to provide customers with faster service and higher quality products than currently on the world market. With this goal in mind, Michael Wang, the founder and the CEO of Cenozoic Robotics, and his team established the company and entered the cleaning industry dedicated to renewing cleaning services with state-of-the-art technologies. Up to now, Cenozoic robots have been deployed at multiple sites in Singapore, Japan, and South Korea.

Apex.AI

Series B in 2021
Apex.AI develops software for autonomous mobility, offering a framework and tools that simplify the development of safe and secure autonomous driving applications. Its platform includes Apex.OS, which abstracts hardware, middleware, kernels, interfaces, and drivers into usable APIs, and Apex.Autonomy for safety-critical applications. It also offers MARV.Automotive, a data management platform that transfers vehicle data to the cloud, enables dynamic search-based analytics, analyzes partial logs, runs algorithms on real data, and provides graphical data introspection and team collaboration. Founded in 2017 and based in Palo Alto, California, Apex.AI builds on open-source software such as ROS and Eclipse iceoryx to provide building blocks for developers creating AI and safety-critical software for autonomous vehicles.

Kodiak Robotics

Series B in 2021
Founded in 2018, Kodiak Robotics specializes in developing autonomous technology for long-haul trucking. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, the company focuses on creating safe and efficient self-driving trucks equipped with advanced sensor fusion systems.

Reliable Robotics

Series C in 2021
Reliable Robotics is a technology company focused on autonomous aviation. Founded in 2017 by Robert Rose and Juerg Frefel, it develops an automation system that enables remote operation of any aircraft type and pursues a certification-forward, gate-to-gate approach to air travel. The company aims to make air transportation safer, more convenient, and more affordable, expanding access to more locations and transforming how goods and people move. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Reliable Robotics supports a distributed global workforce and seeks to partner with customers to streamline airline operations through advanced aircraft automation services.

MetaX

Series A in 2021
Muxi is dedicated to providing full-stack GPU chips and heterogeneous computing solutions that can be widely used in cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, smart cities, data centers, cloud computing, autonomous driving, digital twins, metaverse, and so on. It builds full-stack GPU chip products, launching MXN series GPUs (Xi Si) for AI reasoning, MXC series GPUs (Xi Yun) for AI training and general computing, and MXG series GPUs (Xi Cai) for graphics rendering, Meet the computing power requirements of data centers for "high energy efficiency" and "high versatility". Mu Xi's products all use independently developed GPU IP, have instruction sets and architectures with completely independent intellectual property rights, and are outfitted with a complete software stack (MACAMACA) compatible with mainstream GPU ecosystems. In September 2020, the company was founded in Shanghai, and it has wholly-owned subsidiaries and R&D centers in Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and Wuhan.

Hesai Technology

Series D in 2021
Founded in 2014, Hesai Technology specializes in designing and manufacturing LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) solutions. Its products facilitate advanced driver assistance systems, autonomous vehicles, and robotics across various industries worldwide.

MetaX

Seed Round in 2021
Muxi is dedicated to providing full-stack GPU chips and heterogeneous computing solutions that can be widely used in cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, smart cities, data centers, cloud computing, autonomous driving, digital twins, metaverse, and so on. It builds full-stack GPU chip products, launching MXN series GPUs (Xi Si) for AI reasoning, MXC series GPUs (Xi Yun) for AI training and general computing, and MXG series GPUs (Xi Cai) for graphics rendering, Meet the computing power requirements of data centers for "high energy efficiency" and "high versatility". Mu Xi's products all use independently developed GPU IP, have instruction sets and architectures with completely independent intellectual property rights, and are outfitted with a complete software stack (MACAMACA) compatible with mainstream GPU ecosystems. In September 2020, the company was founded in Shanghai, and it has wholly-owned subsidiaries and R&D centers in Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and Wuhan.

Standard Robots

Series B in 2020
Standard Robots is a company based in Baoan, Guangdong, specializing in the research, development, manufacturing, and marketing of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and Robot Internet of Things (RIoT) software systems. Established in 2016, the company serves industries such as semiconductors, auto parts, and energy by offering standardized solutions that enhance the flexibility and agility of mobile robots in manufacturing environments. Its focus on scalable applications and predictable outcomes allows clients to achieve intelligent logistics transformation through repeatable algorithm scenarios. By providing dedicated services, Standard Robots aims to improve operational efficiency and innovation in the sectors it serves.

Hesai Technology

Series C in 2020
Founded in 2014, Hesai Technology specializes in designing and manufacturing LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) solutions. Its products facilitate advanced driver assistance systems, autonomous vehicles, and robotics across various industries worldwide.

Apex.AI

Venture Round in 2019
Apex.AI develops software for autonomous mobility, offering a framework and tools that simplify the development of safe and secure autonomous driving applications. Its platform includes Apex.OS, which abstracts hardware, middleware, kernels, interfaces, and drivers into usable APIs, and Apex.Autonomy for safety-critical applications. It also offers MARV.Automotive, a data management platform that transfers vehicle data to the cloud, enables dynamic search-based analytics, analyzes partial logs, runs algorithms on real data, and provides graphical data introspection and team collaboration. Founded in 2017 and based in Palo Alto, California, Apex.AI builds on open-source software such as ROS and Eclipse iceoryx to provide building blocks for developers creating AI and safety-critical software for autonomous vehicles.

Cognicept Systems

Pre Seed Round in 2019
Cognicept Systems specializes in hybrid robotics artificial intelligence, offering innovative solutions through its Smart+ telerobotic intervention technology and remote robot pilots. The company focuses on enhancing the deployment of robotic systems by addressing the gap between technological capabilities and customer needs. Cognicept's platform provides supervised autonomy tools that ensure reliability in unpredictable applications, thereby expanding the operational potential of robots. This technology is particularly valuable during the prototyping and testing phases of robotics development, allowing teams to avoid the complexities of creating these tools in-house. By delivering a robust operating system for remote intervention, Cognicept empowers clients to efficiently manage tasks in unstructured environments.

Aurora

Series B in 2019
Aurora Innovation develops advanced software and hardware products for self-driving vehicles, aiming to transform the movement of people and goods. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, the company operates additional offices in the Bay Area, Bozeman, Pittsburgh, and Dallas. Its primary offering, the Aurora Driver, is a scalable self-driving system capable of operating various vehicle types, including freight-hauling trucks and ride-hailing passenger vehicles. This technology supports Aurora's driver-as-a-service products, Aurora Horizon and Aurora Connect, catering to trucking and ride-hailing sectors. By integrating rigorous engineering with applied machine learning, Aurora Innovation seeks to create a comprehensive transportation ecosystem that connects automakers, logistics services, and mobility providers.

Reliable Robotics

Series B in 2019
Reliable Robotics is a technology company focused on autonomous aviation. Founded in 2017 by Robert Rose and Juerg Frefel, it develops an automation system that enables remote operation of any aircraft type and pursues a certification-forward, gate-to-gate approach to air travel. The company aims to make air transportation safer, more convenient, and more affordable, expanding access to more locations and transforming how goods and people move. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Reliable Robotics supports a distributed global workforce and seeks to partner with customers to streamline airline operations through advanced aircraft automation services.

Apex.AI

Series A in 2018
Apex.AI develops software for autonomous mobility, offering a framework and tools that simplify the development of safe and secure autonomous driving applications. Its platform includes Apex.OS, which abstracts hardware, middleware, kernels, interfaces, and drivers into usable APIs, and Apex.Autonomy for safety-critical applications. It also offers MARV.Automotive, a data management platform that transfers vehicle data to the cloud, enables dynamic search-based analytics, analyzes partial logs, runs algorithms on real data, and provides graphical data introspection and team collaboration. Founded in 2017 and based in Palo Alto, California, Apex.AI builds on open-source software such as ROS and Eclipse iceoryx to provide building blocks for developers creating AI and safety-critical software for autonomous vehicles.

Kodiak Robotics

Series A in 2018
Founded in 2018, Kodiak Robotics specializes in developing autonomous technology for long-haul trucking. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, the company focuses on creating safe and efficient self-driving trucks equipped with advanced sensor fusion systems.

Reliable Robotics

Series A in 2017
Reliable Robotics is a technology company focused on autonomous aviation. Founded in 2017 by Robert Rose and Juerg Frefel, it develops an automation system that enables remote operation of any aircraft type and pursues a certification-forward, gate-to-gate approach to air travel. The company aims to make air transportation safer, more convenient, and more affordable, expanding access to more locations and transforming how goods and people move. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Reliable Robotics supports a distributed global workforce and seeks to partner with customers to streamline airline operations through advanced aircraft automation services.

Citadel Defense

Series A in 2017
Citadel Defense Company, established in 2016 and headquartered in National City, California, specializes in developing and manufacturing counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS). The company offers an automated, modular drone defense solution that employs proprietary machine learning algorithms to detect and mitigate unauthorized drone threats. Citadel's team comprises experts from commercial and military drone industries, enabling them to deliver effective solutions tailored for various clients, including the U.S. Department of Defense, Homeland Security, and other government agencies. Their systems provide multi-layered protection models with escalating countermeasures, ensuring airspace monitoring, threat detection, and mitigation without interfering with common communications.

Hesai Technology

Series B in 2017
Founded in 2014, Hesai Technology specializes in designing and manufacturing LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) solutions. Its products facilitate advanced driver assistance systems, autonomous vehicles, and robotics across various industries worldwide.

Plus

Seed Round in 2016
Plus is a global technology company headquartered in Silicon Valley that develops highly automated and fully autonomous driving solutions. Its open‑autonomy platform powers commercial vehicles in the United States and Germany and is used by leading automakers, fleets, and technology partners worldwide. The company focuses on making driving safer, more comfortable, and more sustainable, and it has been recognized by Forbes, Fast Company, Insider, CES, and AUVSI for its innovative technology. Plus also builds AI‑driven autonomous driving software for trucks, leveraging large AI models and generative AI to enable safe, affordable, and scalable deployment of autonomous freight vehicles.
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