Lightspeed

Depth is our center of gravity. Complete immersion is the heart of our philosophy on investing - dedicating ourselves to our Founders’ businesses and growing with them means we can build something truly impactful. Because possibility grows the deeper you go. https://lsvp.com/

Before the AI boom, scientists and institutions conducted a decade of research on the development of this new technology. Early papers have become the foundation for today’s AI ecosystem. At Lightspeed, we have observed the research closely and developed deep expertise in AI, which has allowed us to recognize and cultivate new discoveries in AI technology and become early backers of top AI companies. Learn more about the papers and insights that have laid the groundwork for the AI developments of today: https://lnkd.in/d3JXEXk7

We’re back with another Financing Spotlight. Congratulations to these Lightspeed-backed companies on their recent funding announcements: → Scorpion Therapeutics, a pioneering clinical-stage oncology company redefining the frontier of precision medicine to deliver transformational therapies for patients with cancer. cc: President & CEO Adam Friedman, MD, PhD → Chainguard, the largest library of open source software, eliminating risks for enterprises concerned about software vulnerabilities and compliance requirements that impact business operations and productivity of developer and security teams. cc: Co-Founders Dan Lorenc, Matt Moore, Kim Lewandowski, and Ville Aikas → Exa, an AI-powered search engine built and optimized for the needs of AI agents. cc: Co-Founders Jeffrey Wang and Will Bryk

Research to Reality: The Evolution of the New AI Ecosystem.

Even before the release of ChatGPT, the AI boom was building for years through several key foundational research discoveries. These research findings laid the groundwork for some of today’s top AI companies and new innovation ecosystems. At Lightspeed, we have been close observers of AI research over the past decade and we have backed pioneering startups built upon the research findings, such as Mistral AI, Snorkel AI, and Skild AI. Our latest blog highlights the most influential AI research papers by examining their impact on today's startup landscape. We break down how these papers have shaped the journey from researchers to startup founders, and transformed institutions into hubs of AI innovation. Through this lens, we found four key research waves that have propelled AI to its current state: → Model Architecture Improvements → Developer Productivity Gains → Task Execution → Compute Optimization For a deep dive into the historical arc of AI research and to explore the next wave of innovative startups developed from this foundation, read our latest insights here: https://lnkd.in/d3JXEXk7

Lightspeed is excited to share that we're co-leading the $140 million Series C round in Chainguard, a company on a mission to secure open source with the advancements of AI. Open source has transformed software development, but without proper enterprise-level security support engineers are often forced to focus on patching vulnerabilities instead of innovating. Chainguard products are built to solve security problems for engineers and allow them to become more efficient with their time. This level of security and work efficiency is now even more of a demand and need for companies with the growth of AI and other new technologies.  We know Chainguard’s Co-Founders, Dan Lorenc, Matt Moore, Kim Lewandowski, and Ville Aikas, are uniquely set up to understand and solve the problems with open source security. We look forward to partnering with them on this big milestone as they work towards the next major shift in technology. Read more on our blog: https://lnkd.in/gwJHAJTm Cc: Arsham Memarzadeh, Nathan Wu, and Guru Chahal

ICYMI, Game Changers is Lightspeed and GamesBeat’s annual list celebrating startups in gaming and interactive media. Two of last year’s winners, Ido Yablonka, CEO at Kooply, and Siddharth Dhulipalla, CEO at Hathora, shared their experiences and discussed the impact of being a part of the community in this video. Like last year, 25 companies will be recognized as 2025 Game Changers. The winners will receive widespread media coverage through GamesBeat and access to 1:1 mentoring and interactions with top industry leaders across gaming, technology, and interactive media. Submissions are open until September 15th – check out the criteria and submit your applications and nominations here: https://lnkd.in/gtVsN_-N cc: Moritz Baier-Lentz 🎮, Dean Takahashi

Thank you to Fortune and Allie Garfinkle for hosting Lightspeed Partner Guru Chahal at #BrainstormTech last week for a deep dive discussion on where AI value is—and isn't. Swipe to see highlights from the day and watch the full session here: https://bit.ly/3S9IJoP

Lightspeed-backed company Mistral AI announced two new research models – MathΣtral and Codestral Mamba – both AI models with reasoning capabilities.  MathΣtral is solving complex math problems through logical reasons that allow scientists and researchers to come to faster conclusions with more accurate results. Codestral Mamba is a code generator designed to handle complex instructions and deliver precise outputs, allowing developers to be more efficient and productive. These two releases from Mistral AI are one more step towards advancing technology and providing innovative tools for the AI community. 

AI-integrated writing tools are emerging as more than just a technical solution. They are now hyper intelligent collaborators in the writing process. Lex is one of the companies leading this development by enhancing the writing process to improve workflows and provide feedback the same way a human collaborator would. Nathan Baschez, the Founder and CEO of Lex, joined Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano on the Generative Now Podcast to discuss how his “side project” became a leading AI company and how AI advancements will continue to improve team workflows. Watch the full episode on these platforms: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3zQ0fII  Apple: https://apple.co/3y2H1yV  Youtube: https://bit.ly/4fcAl23