Scaling Lightspeed’s Growth Investment Practice.

Lightspeed’s growth investment practice is expanding and we’re excited to officially welcome new investors Amy Wu, Arsham Memarzadeh, and Adam Smith to the team.

Lightspeed was born as an early stage VC firm nearly 20 years ago and our mission then remains the same today: to invest in founders and innovators building enduring companies across the world. Like the companies we invest in, we have to continue to innovate and evolve in order to be the best partners we can be, and in order to better serve our entrepreneurs and the companies they’ve created as they grow.

These special companies are staying private longer and regardless of where in the world the journey begins, the founders ambitions are increasingly global in nature to meet growing demand. So we’re evolving and expanding to be better partners with One Lightspeed — working collaboratively with our partners in the US, China, India, and Israel to support founders across the globe on their journeys.

As such, last year we announced Brad Twohig had joined the team, plus and announced new capital dedicated for growth investments — think follow-on rounds in Lightspeed portfolio companies across the globe as they enter the growth phase, as well as in new companies that have demonstrated compelling product-market fit, strong executive teams and scalability. It’s been a busy year since then — we’ve made follow-on growth investments in some awesome companies like Oyo, TripActions, Affirm, BetterUp, Udaan, and Rubrik, and new growth investments in Carta, Epic Games, Seismic, ifChange, and ezCater, to name a few.

With the additions of Amy, Arsham and Adam, we look forward to partnering with more growth stage founders and companies this year and beyond.

Some background on Arsham, Amy and Adam:

Arsham Memarzadeh, Lightspeed Partner

Born the son of an Iranian immigrant and entrepreneur, Arsham developed an early appreciation for the resilience and ingenuity required to win, even when all the cards are stacked against you. He joined Lightspeed most recently having spent five years in Boston at an expansion stage venture firm, where he backed Deputy, Highspot, and GitPrime, among others. He’s invested in companies across three continents, in unlikely geographies and led by unassuming entrepreneurs, so it’s no surprise that Lightspeed’s diverse, global platform was part of what drew him to the firm. And we’re very happy it did.

Amy Wu, Lightspeed Partner

Amy brings a breadth of global investing and operating experience to Lightspeed. Amy was most recently at Discovery, Inc, one of the largest global media companies, as Group CFO for their global digital and sports business and based in Singapore previously as CFO and SVP of Commercial Operations for the Asia business. She has worked with companies across the US, Europe, and Asia while at Insight Venture Partners, including JD.com, Smartsheet, Zumba, and DrillingInfo. We know she’s going to be a huge asset to current and future founders in Lightspeed’s portfolio. You should talk to her about her days as a concert pianist and the 12 alpine peaks over 10,000 ft she’s climbed.

Adam Smith, Lightspeed Partner

Adam came to Lightspeed from Bain Capital Ventures, where he looked at early-to-late stage investments in application software. Having also spent time at Uber and consulting for fast-growing companies, he’s developed an in-depth understanding of what it takes to scale a business across the lifecycle. A dual-citizen who grew up in both Europe and the U.S., Adam attributes much of who he is and how he views the world to his multicultural background. Worth noting he graduated magna cum laude from UPenn with a degree in Neurobiology — needless to say, he’s an intelligent human.

Please join us in welcoming them to the team.

— Will Kohler and Brad Twohig