Lightspeed Healthtech Newsletter

Welcome to the first edition of Lightspeed’s Healthtech Newsletter, a semi-annual look behind the curtain of what we’re building and where we’re headed in Healthtech. 

Recognizing the transformative impact AI is already having on healthcare, Lightspeed began the year by welcoming Brenton Fargnoli, MD, to lead our Healthtech efforts as we intentionally double down across all stages. So far in 2025, Lightspeed-backed healthcare companies have raised over $1.5B in funding.

Recent portfolio highlights include: 

• Abridge, an AI-powered clinical conversation platform led by Dr. Shiv Rao, closed its Series D in Q1 and Series E in Q2, while Neko Health, an AI health diagnostics company co-founded by Hjalmar Nilsonne and Spotify founder Daniel Ek was backed by Lightspeed in its Series B. Neko emerged alongside Abridge as the two largest new unicorns not only in healthcare but across all sectors in Q1.

• Tennr raised its Series C to expand its healthcare operations automation platform. 

• Our deep-dive into brain-computer interfaces (BCI) culminated in an investment in Elon Musk’s Neuralink.

These companies encapsulate the broad opportunity for AI in healthcare, spanning clinical to administrative innovation, and the extraordinary teams that are meeting this moment head-on. 

Beyond healthcare, we wrote our largest check ever as a firm, leading Anthropic’s $3.5B Series E round, and adding to the ~$3.4B the firm has invested in over 120 AI companies. Meanwhile, Google announced its largest acquisition ever with Lighspeed-backed cybersecurity company, Wiz.

Building Community

The Lightspeed Healthtech Advisory Council

As Lightspeed continues to evolve, we’re dedicated to exploring opportunities that foster collaboration, share learnings, accelerate innovation, and most importantly, build community. 

That’s why we’re proud to unveil the launch of our Lightspeed Healthtech Advisory Council, bringing together top leaders and experts across payer, provider, policy, and AI.

Healthtech Events

We also recently gathered healthcare leaders in New York, Boston, and the SF Bay Area at several events, including: 

Next in Care

We’re particularly excited about several areas within healthtech. Administrative healthcare AI, which drives provider efficiency and patient experience, is seeing a landgrab moment. AI for scribing and revenue cycle management (RCM) has set the stage, with front-office applications, including voice AI, soon to follow. On the clinical side, persistent supply-demand gaps in primary care, nursing, and mental health are driving AI’s integration as a new member of the care team. 

If you share our passion for making an impact in healthcare with AI, broadly or in these focus areas, we would love to connect to share our perspective and resources. We’ll also be speaking at upcoming events like the AWS Healthcare Summit, Digital Health New York Summit, and HLTH. 

Best,

Lightspeed Healthcare
Brenton Fargnoli, Galym Imanbayev, Jonathan MacQuitty, Naveed Matinfar, Ravi Mhatre, Shaurya Aggarwal, Shelley Chu, and Will Kohler