"We continue to want to support really talented founders very early in their journeys to build, what we hope and what they hope, will be very large companies,” Bejul emphasises in a nearly hour-long conversation with YourStoryFounder and CEO Shradha Sharma, shortly after Lightspeed India announced it raised $275 million for its third India-focussed fund.īejul Somaia, Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partners, in conversation with YourStory Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma The Build-in-India opportunity for startups “The one thing we've operated by since the beginning is first principles - about what needs to exist in this country," Bejul tells YourStory. Later, as Partner, Lightspeed India Ventures - which Bejul helped set up - he was an early backer of OYO when the hospitality company was just two-properties-old his investment of over $20 million yielded a 35X return when Lightspeed made a partial exit in 2019. Lightspeed was the first investor in power marketplace Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) until its eventual IPO.
In his nearly two-decade long stint in the venture capital and startup world, Bejul has consistently relied on this question to tell apart bold founders who are in it to play the long game and win at all costs.Īs the Managing Director of Lightspeed Venture Partners, he has done that consistently for the past 12 years at the early stage venture capital firm, betting on unconventional names and bold ideas that have yielded stellar returns for the firm. This is the first question Bejul Somaia asks startup founders in every pitch meeting.
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