Lightbank

Lightbank is a financial organization that specializes in making venture capital investments in "disruptive" technology companies in the United States including seed investments, Series A round and late-stage investments.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} It combines investment with guidance and direct involvement with the companies it invests in. Unlike most investors in technology companies, it does not concentrate its investments in Silicon Valley, but prefers to have a presence across the United States. It was founded by Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky. It is headquartered in Chicago and it has made investments in companies in Chicago, New York City, Omaha and the Bay Area.^[2]

Investments

Lightbank has invested in a number of companies,^[6] including the deal-of-the-day website Groupon. Lightbank's Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell were two of the original co-founders, along with Andrew Mason of Groupon.^[7]

Other Lightbank investments include Mediaocean, InnerWorkings, loyalty startup Belly, test preparation service BenchPrep, Qwiki, ClusterFlunk and HighGround.^[6]

Partners

Lefkofsky was a co-founder of Lightbank, though he became 'Special Advisor' in 2014-2015 during his tenure as CEO of Groupon. He then returned to Lightbank as managing partner in November 2015 after stepping down as CEO of Groupon. ^[8]

Paul Lee, a partner at Lightbank, left the venture fund in November 2014 to start Roniin, a venture capital incubator which has a mentor model where veteran entrepreneurs mentor fresh ones and Roniin provides seed capital to hopefully increase chances of startup success.^[9]

See also

• Venture builders

References

External links

• Official website
• Lightbank profile on CrunchBase
• Lightbank profile on AngelList

Private equity and venture capital investment firms
Investment strategy	Venture Growth Mezzanine Secondaries Leveraged buyout
History	History of private equity and venture capital Early history of private equity Private equity in the 1980s Private equity in the 1990s Private equity in the 2000s
Investors	Angel investor Corporate venture capital Commercial bank Crowdfunding Institutional investor Insurance company Investment bank Endowment Family office Fund of funds High-net-worth individual Merchant bank Pension fund Sovereign wealth fund
Private equity firms Venture capital firms Portfolio companies

Private equity and venture capital
Basic investment types	Buyout Venture Mezzanine Growth Secondaries Equity co-investment
History	History of private equity and venture capital Early history of private equity Private equity in the 1980s Private equity in the 1990s Private equity in the 2000s
Terms and concepts	Buyout Financial sponsor Management buyout Divisional buyout Buy–sell agreement Leveraged recapitalization Dividend recapitalization Venture Angel investor Business incubator Post-money valuation Pre-money valuation Seed money Startup company Venture capital financing Venture debt Venture round Structure Private equity firms and funds Limited partnership Limited liability company Carried interest Management fee Publicly traded private equity Business Development Company Venture capital trust Private investment in public equity (PIPE) Pledge fund
Investors	Corporations Institutional investors Pension funds Insurance companies Fund of funds Endowments Foundations Investment banks Merchant banks Commercial banks High-net-worth individuals Family offices Sovereign wealth funds Crowdfunding
Related financial terms	AUM Cap table Capital call Capital commitment Capital structure Distribution waterfall EBITDA Envy ratio High-yield debt IPO IRR Leverage Liquidation preference M&A PME Taxation of private equity and hedge funds Undercapitalization Vintage year
Private equity and venture capital investors Private equity firms Venture capital firms Angel investors Portfolio companies