Dear friends of Lightrock,
As 2021 draws to a close, we have been reflecting on another year that has passed in a flash. Writing this once again from our home offices, unfortunately it has not quite been the return to normality for which we had all hoped. However, despite the ongoing volatility and disruption, there remain many reasons to be both thankful and optimistic.
Despite the challenges presented by the pandemic, Lightrock has continued to grow from strength to strength. We welcomed 23 new companies to the Lightrock portfolio, deploying more than USD 700m across 5 continents; our combined portfolio helped mitigate 20m tons of CO2, educate 5m students, and treat 8m patients; and we successfully raised the USD 900m Lightrock Growth Fund I. We are encouraged by these milestones, which demonstrate both the resiliency of the ecosystem in which we operate and the appetite for our mission-driven product.
However, we do not take credit for these achievements without perspective. It does not go unappreciated that in a year when we have experienced tremendous growth and hired 30+ new team members, thousands of people have faced professional uncertainty and hardship. Indeed, we are incredibly grateful not just for the specific successes we have had, but for the ability to work in this industry full stop.
As such, we want to say a huge thank-you. A thank-you not just to the inspirational entrepreneurs who have allowed us to be a part of their journey, the investors who have placed their trust in us, and all our co-investors with whom we have collaborated so closely; but also to those who have made it so easy to work from anywhere in the world, those who have kept the real world running despite having their own lives transformed, and those who have treated us and our loved ones in times of ill health. It is not lost on us that the pandemic has placed an uneven burden on society, and we are immensely grateful to those bearing a heavier load.
In this context, our ambition and sense of responsibility to achieve the Lightrock mission is stronger than ever. The pandemic and its ongoing aftershocks have helped exaggerate global issues around inequality, inefficiency, and access, and we are incredibly proud that we can point to our portfolio as playing a small part in solving these.
However, it has also created significant silver linings that provide reasons aplenty to be optimistic and excited for the future. Normalization of remote work has rapidly accelerated business models that provide faster and cheaper access to vital services; changes in patterns of movement have demonstrated that we can have an immediate and positive effect on the health of our planet if we so choose; and most encouragingly of all, the number of our peers who are now positioning products with a stated focus on Environmental, Social, and Governance issues has exploded. At Lightrock, our ambition is to drive the conversation around positive systemic change and be a leader at the forefront of this movement. However, to create real impact at scale, our hope is that many will follow, and so we are hugely encouraged by the recent momentum we have seen in the space.
With that ambition in mind, in 2022 we hope to work more closely with you than ever before, whether it be in person or virtually! Until then, we wish you and your loved ones a happy and restful festive period, and a wonderful new year.
With warm regards,
The Lightrock Global Team
Lightrock updates
We are incredibly excited to welcome a few new companies to the Lightrock portfolio:
Lightrock led the $100m Series C in Liqid, the world’s leading provider of datacentre composability, helping datacentres to significantly improve performance, architectural optimization, and hardware utilization issues. We are excited to collaborate with Sumit Puri and his talented team on their mission to reduce energy wastage and improve the carbon footprint of datacentres globally.
Lightrock also co-led a $34m funding round in Kebony, a pioneering Norwegian wood tech company. The company’s mission is to reduce CO2emissions, avoid tropical deforestation, and enable sustainability in the high-emission construction industry. We are proud to support Norman Willemsen, Thomas Vanholme and the rest of the team in this vision.
Lightrock led the $185 million Series E in Shiprocket, a leading e-commerce shipping platform in India. The company is a tech-enabled logistic platform that provides logistic service, warehousing, packaging, and includes many other integrations which help the merchants and sellers to manage deliveries. We are excited to support Saahil Goel and his team on democratising e-commerce fulfilment for small and medium merchants to grow their business.
Lightrock co-led DeHaat’s $115 million Series D fundraise. DeHaat offers full-stack agricultural services to farmers, including distribution of agricultural inputs, customised farm advisory, access tofinancial services, and market linkages for selling their produce. We are thrilled to back the company’s vision to drive efficiency and transparency in the agriculture industry.
Lightrock also led the $31 million Series B funding in Metro Africa Xpress (MAX), a Nigerian mobility tech startup, to expand across Africa as it races towards formalising the continent’s transportation sector. This is Lightrock’s first investment in the African mobility space alongside Global Ventures as well as existing investors Novastar Ventures, and Proparco, the French development finance institution, through their Digital Africa initiative.
In addition to our new investments, we are delighted to have completed follow-on funding rounds in some of our portfolio companies, including the minting of two new unicorns. We have continued to invest in these companies and are excited to see what the future holds – some examples below:
Infarm raised $200m in a round led by the Qatar Investment Authority, at a valuation well north of $1bn. The round will help Infarm continue its global expansion of climate-resilient urban vertical farms throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.
Porter raised $100m in a Series E funding round led by Tiger Global and Vitruvian. Theround will help the company consolidate its position in the intra-city logistics market, focus on acquiring talent and expand operations to enter the top 35 cities of India by 2023.
Frete.com (formerly CargoX) raised $200m in a round led by Softbank and Tencent, in the process becoming a Brazilian unicorn! The company will use the funds to deepen its regional expansion in existing and new markets.
Lightrock portfolio companies are continuing to make waves in their respective fields. Recent recognition includes:
The CEO of M-Kopa, Jesse Moore, is ranked at The Africa Report’s Top 40 digital economy’s power players. His efforts on building a platform that promotes financial inclusion are recognised for shaping Africa’s digital landscape.
Neo4j was honoured with 2021 Data Breakthrough Award for Graph DBS Solution of the Year. The company was recognised for its innovative solutions to help solve real-world issues and uncover critical connections in fraud detection, medical research, and more.
Lightrock recognitions
At Lightrock, we are humbled by a few recognitions from reputable journals for our role as an impact investor. Earlier in November, Lightrock was acknowledged by Dealroom as one of the most active climate tech investors in Europe. Our team is highly motivated to play a fundamentally important role in the fight against climate change.
Recently, Lightrock was featured in Future 40 Impact Investment Funds at Real Deals Media, for the large impact reach that has been achieved through investing in solutions that tackle social and environmental challenges, such as supporting innovative companies on their journey to net zero and improving the quality of life and services.
Additionally, Lightrock Growth Fund I was recognised by New Private Markets as one of the 20 largest impact funds in private markets. We are honoured to be part of this list amongst other great funds, for having the most influence and capital in the market to invest with the intention to generate positive, measurable and environmental impact alongside a financial return.
Disclaimer:
This newsletter contains selected information about Lightrock LLP and its affiliates (“Lightrock”) and about the assets that Lightrock advises on, and has been prepared and furnished to you solely for informational purposes and reference only. It does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities and may not be used or relied upon in evaluating the merits of any investment. The contents hereof should not be construed as investment, legal, tax or other advice and you should consult your own advisers as to legal, business, tax and other related matters. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this newsletter. The information contained herein is confidential and may not be used, reproduced or distributed to others, in whole or in part, for any other purpose without the prior written consent of Lightrock. Information provided is current as of the date of this newsletter (or as otherwise specified). Please note that throughout this document we provide various examples or subsets of existing and past investments advised on by Lightrock and in an aggregate may represent only a small percentage of the investments advised on by Lightrock. It should not be assumed that any other investments not shown would perform similarly to those shown. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Differences between past performance and actual results may be material and adverse. Future investments may be made under materially different economic conditions, including interest rates, market trends and general business conditions, in different portfolio companies and using different investment strategies and these differences may have a significant effect on the results portrayed, portfolio companies held or decisions made. Each of these material market or economic conditions may or may not be repeated. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The value of investments may fall as well as rise and an investor may not receive all they have invested.