VC Firm Lightspeed Eyes Investment in Cloud Infrastructure Startup Neysa
Venture capital firm Lightspeed has entered discussions to acquire a minority stake in cloud infrastructure startup Neysa, joining SoftBank and Blackstone, both of which have already been in talks with the company, according to people familiar with the matter. While Blackstone is negotiating a majority buyout, Lightspeed—similar to SoftBank—is exploring a $40–50 million investment in the Nexus Venture Partners and Z47-backed startup.
The potential deal is expected to value Neysa at around $250–300 million, a sharp rise from its previous valuation of $76 million during its October 2024 funding round. However, sources emphasized that these discussions are still at an early stage.
Neysa is the second venture of Sharad Sanghi, founder of Netmagic, one of India’s earliest data center services companies. Launched in 2023 by Sanghi and former Netmagic executive Anindya Das, the Mumbai-based startup provides compute power and software tools to help enterprises, startups, and government agencies build, run, and manage artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The company raised $50 million across two funding rounds in 2024 from investors including Nexus Venture Partners, Z47, Blume Ventures, and NTTVC.
Industry experts note that while Indian founders have been actively focusing on the AI application layer, few are attempting to build AI infrastructure due to the capital-intensive nature of the sector—requiring large investments in land, power, and high-end technical expertise. Neysa’s experienced founding team, with its Netmagic background, stands out as one of the few capable of executing AI infrastructure at scale in India.
The heightened investor interest in Neysa comes as global hyperscalers and Indian conglomerates plan to invest more than $50 billion in India’s data center ecosystem over the next five to seven years. As of September, India’s operational data center capacity stood at 1.5 GW, with 260 MW added between January and September, according to CBRE. Major global players such as Google, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Meta—as well as Indian giants like Adani, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, TCS, and L&T—are rapidly expanding their data center footprint.
If finalized, the Neysa deal would mark SoftBank’s first India investment under its new strategy of backing large, AI-driven infrastructure and IT companies. For Blackstone, which manages nearly $50 billion in assets in India, a buyout would deepen its growing presence in the country’s digital and data center infrastructure market. Blackstone’s Lumina Cloudinfra, launched in 2022, has been scaling rapidly, while its data center operator AirTrunk recently announced plans for a new facility in India amid soaring AI-driven demand.