Venture capital fund · 2 deals
Every published round Lightspeed took part in, and every parcel of existing shares it bought off another holder. Deals we hold but haven't published yet are not counted.
| Company | Stage | Announced | Amount | Role | Alongside | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Granola | Series C | Mar 2026 | $125m | Participant | shopifreaks.com, granola.ai | |
| Marqo | Series A | 19 Feb 2024 | $19.4m | Lead | Startup Daily (9 Oct 2025), SmartCompany (7 Oct 2025), SmartCompany (11 Jun 2025), Early VC, SmartCompany (16 Feb 2024), Startup Daily (14 Feb 2024), SmartCompany (14 Feb 2024) |
Companies Lightspeed has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
Fund closes reported for Lightspeed, as distinct from the investments it has made.
Companies Lightspeed has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal Lightspeed did.
| Name | Role | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Francis Malloch-Boe | Engineer (former) | Forbes Australia |
Stories naming Lightspeed. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Zeller has rolled out a point-of-sale application for small Australian businesses, replacing subscription pricing with per-transaction charges and adding an AI assistant inside its merchant dashboard.
AI notepad maker Granola announced a $125 million Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation, led by Index Ventures with Kleiner Perkins and returning backers, alongside new features for sharing meeting context.
Also shopifreaks.com
Forbes Australia profiles Butter, a year-old Melbourne app fighting loneliness through in-person gatherings, now at 10,000 users with $260,000 from backer Antler at a roughly $2.2 million valuation.
Build Club and AWS are launching a six-week Sydney accelerator for 15 technical founders in AI, offering credits, mentoring and a US tour, with two founders already chosen.
Australian startups Diraq, Marqo, and Hatch secured funding rounds. Ansarada was acquired by Datasite. Bupa launched a new venture fund, and the Queensland government backed several VCs and accelerators.
Australian vector search firm Marqo has banked US$12.5 million in a Series A headed by Lightspeed, with Blackbird, January Capital and an individual backer taking part, and is shifting its base to San Francisco.
Also Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Early VC
OIF Ventures' year in review: full Eftsure exit, Opportunity Fund close, Visory, DataMasque and Nullify backed, follow-ons at Inspace and Dataweavers, new team members and portfolio milestones.
Also OIF Ventures portfolio·OIF Ventures portfolio·OIF Ventures portfolio
Profiles three founders: Kismet's Mark Woodland ($4m pre-seed for disability-services software), Forage's Tom Brumskill and Pasha Rayan (job-simulation platform, Series A and B), and Diolog's Amy Benson (self-funded investor-communications startup planning a seed round).
Also Startup Daily
Square Peg Capital's year-in-review recaps its 2021 portfolio: raises it led or joined, SPAC listing decisions, Vend's acquisition, new investment-team hires, and its newsletter and podcast output.
Also Cut Through Venture·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Techboard·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·myzeller.com·Australian FinTech·Forbes Australia·Dealroom·rswebsols.com