Rich Greenfield’s LightShed Launches Investment Fund

The group of technology, media and telecom analysts behind research firm LightShed Partners have launched an early-stage investment fund.

Through LightShed Ventures, co-founders and general partners Rich Greenfield Walter Piecyk, Brandon Ross and Jamie Roberts Seltzer will invest $75 million in the seed and series A funding rounds for TMT startups. They have already made four investments through the fund, including into podcast database Podchaser, audio startup Slipstream and subscription data firm Antenna Analytics.

“LightShed Partners will serve as the foundation for what we do at LightShed Ventures,” Greenfield said in a statement. “Our unique, thematic research remains our life blood. The principles behind our research will underpin our investments. But the research itself is just the start of our flywheel. Everyone knows we have one of the biggest megaphones in TMT to amplify our ideas and strengthen our brand and mindshare.”

Greenfield, Piecyk and Ross left research firm BTIG in 2019 to launch independent firm LightShed, which provides analysis on public TMT companies like Netflix, AT&T and Verizon as well as disruptive private companies. Seltzer previously worked as an investor and entrepreneur in residence at Waverley Capital.

To avoid conflicts of interest, the new venture arm has not taken investments from the C-suite executives of companies the research arm covers. (The firm did not disclose its LPs but said they include an institutional investor and a group of executives who span media, telecom, tech, sports, entertainment, music and finance.) Greenfield tells THR that LightShed’s investments into private companies will have no impact on the advice it continues to offer to paying subscribers around the buying and selling of public companies.

“We have been planning this obvious evolution since before we started LightShed Partners,” Piecyk said in a statement. “We have spent much of our time understanding upstart industry disruptors and have been active angel investors.”

Ross added that the company “will continue to shine a light on emerging private companies to industry executives and potential investors through our broad media presence. Additionally, we will leverage our expansive network to help founders accelerate their business objectives and facilitate exits.”