At a Glance
Lightbank was founded in 2010 by Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, co-founders of Groupon, with the vision of building a prominent venture capital presence in Chicago. The firm has established itself as a leading voice for Midwest entrepreneurship while maintaining a national investment scope. Lightbank focuses on early-stage technology companies, particularly in consumer and enterprise software sectors, writing initial checks typically ranging from $500K to $5M. The firm's investment approach emphasizes hands-on partnership with entrepreneurs, leveraging the founders' extensive operational experience from building and scaling Groupon. Notable investments include location platform Foursquare, property management technology company SMS Assist, parking app SpotHero, and personalized video platform Cameo. What distinguishes Lightbank is its commitment to the Chicago tech ecosystem while maintaining a broader investment mandate, and its founders' unique perspective as successful entrepreneurs who understand the challenges of scaling technology companies.
“Backing entrepreneurs building disruptive technology companies that can scale rapidly and create significant market value.”
Lightbank was founded by Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, who had already built Groupon, Echo Global Logistics and InnerWorkings together in Chicago. Lefkofsky is managing partner, a role he took in November 2015 after two years as a special adviser, and he remains the firm's most visible principal.
The partner group includes Bill Pescatello, Matt Sacks and Eric Ong, all long-tenured at the firm. The wider team of roughly nineteen people is listed publicly and includes Hank Couture, Anish Aggarwal, Stephen Baron, Achintya Chaudhari, Rick Ginsberg, Joe Hayes, Andrew Heinlein, Maria Heyen, Ryan Hrabak, Zack Malkin, Mike Mauceri, Ayaan Patel, Ellie Shuda, Lauren von Reyn and Nick Whang. The firm operates from Chicago only, and its pitch to management teams rests on its partners having scaled a company from that market to a public listing rather than on coastal network access.
Lightbank was formed in 2010 by Groupon co-founders Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, and moved quickly: by 2011 it had raised more than $700 million, including a $290 million Fund III. Lefkofsky served as a special adviser in 2014 and 2015 before becoming managing partner in November 2015.
The firm's most recent disclosed vehicle is Lightbank II, L.P., which took first sale in November 2020 and had sold $181.9 million of a $240 million offering to 43 investors by its April 2021 Form D. The filing names Lightbank GP II, Lightbank Asset Management and Lightbank, LLC as related entities. The investment record spans Groupon itself, Tempus AI, Fiverr, Udemy, Sprout Social, Belly, SpotHero in 2014, Boom Technology in 2017, BenchPrep and Qwiki, alongside the Cameo, Tock and Echo Global Logistics positions the firm is known for locally. Initial cheques typically run from $500,000 to $5 million.
Lightbank primarily invests at the Seed, Series A stages. This means they focus on companies that are building their initial product and finding product-market fit.
Lightbank is headquartered in Chicago, IL. Many of their portfolio companies are also based in this region, though they invest across geographies.
Lightbank focuses on investments in Consumer, Enterprise, SaaS. Their portfolio reflects deep expertise and networks within these sectors.
Lightbank's typical investment check size ranges from $500K to $5M. Actual amounts may vary based on the stage, sector, and specific opportunity.
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