About Lightstream
Lightstream is a company based in Chicago (United States) founded in 2014 by Ryan Forquer, Dan Trocchio, Stu Grubbs, and Aaron Hassell was acquired by Xsolla in October 2023. Lightstream has raised $9.92 million across 4 funding rounds from investors including SVB, Techstars and Drive Capital. Lightstream operates in a competitive market with competitors including Twitch, StreamElements, Restream, Turnip and LIV, among others.
- Headquarter Chicago, United States
- Founders Ryan Forquer, Dan Trocchio, Stu Grubbs, Aaron Hassell
- SectorsMedia & Entertainment
- Website category Games · Video Games Consoles and Accessories
- Emailβ’β’β’β’β’β’β’β’
- Website golightstream.com
- Social LinkedIn X Facebook Instagram YouTube
- Acquired by Creative Solutions (Apr 2021)
- Legal Name Infiniscene
Apps and channels of Lightstream
its YouTube channel Lightstream has 9.98K subscribers and 30 videos.
Videos from Lightstream
The most watched videos on Lightstream's YouTube channel, Lightstream (9.98K subscribers). Click a video to play it here.
More on Lightstream.
Funding Insights of Lightstream
Lightstream has successfully raised a total of $9.92M across 4 strategic funding rounds. The most recent funding activity was a Series A round of $8 million completed in February 2019. This substantial capital infusion reflects strong investor confidence in the company's business model, growth potential, and market opportunities. The funding enables strategic expansion, product development, market penetration, and operational scaling to drive long-term value creation and competitive advantage.
- Total Funding $9.92M
- Total Rounds 4
- Last Round Series A β $8M
- Investors Count 7
All 4 funding rounds of Lightstream with amounts and investors; the two latest post-money valuations are shown, the rest are part of the premium plan.
| Date | Amount | Transaction Name | Valuation | Lead Investors | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 2019 | $8M | Series A | β | Drive Capital | |
| Feb 2016 | $1.8M | Seed | β | MK Capital, MATH Venture Partners | β |
| Jun 2015 | $120,000 | Seed | β | Techstars | β |
| Jun 2015 | – | Seed | β | Right Side Capital Management | β |
9 investors in total: 9 institutional.
Investors in Lightstream
Lightstream has secured backing from 9 investors, including venture fund and institutional investors. Prominent investors backing the company include SVB, Techstars and Drive Capital.
| Investor | Description | Founded Year | Domain | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Venture capital firm focused on pre-seed and seed stage investments | – | drivecapital.com | Columbus, United States | |
Venture capital investments in software and technology companies with a focus on early and growth stages. | – | mkcapital.com | - | |
Investments in SaaS, marketplace, and middle market companies are managed. | – | pritzkergroup.com | Chicago, United States | |
Early-stage tech startups are invested in across US and Canada. | – | mathventurepartners.com | Chicago, United States | |
Pre-seed stage Micro VC firm investing in the US and Canada | – | rightsidecapital.com | San Francisco, United States | |
Startups are accelerated globally without sector restrictions through structured programs. | 2006 | techstars.com | New York, United States | |
Banking services are provided to innovative companies, investors, and individuals. | 1983 | svb.com | Santa Clara, United States | |
Xsolla offers payment processing, fraud prevention, and tools for game developers globally. | 2006 | xsolla.com | Los Angeles, United States | |
Creative Solutions is engaged in distributing audio-visual equipment. | – | creativesolutions.io | - |
Investor details for Lightstream
The complete investor list, round-by-round participation and investor portfolios require an active premium plan.
- Complete investor list
- Round participation
- Investor portfolios
- Co-investor network
Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
People of Lightstream
6 people are tracked at Lightstream (5 in leadership, 1 in team).
| Name | Role | Group |
|---|---|---|
Ryan Forquer | Co-Founder & CCO | Leadership |
Dan Trocchio | Co-Founder | Leadership |
Stu Grubbs | Co-Founder & CEO | Leadership |
Aaron Hassell | Co-Founder & COO | Leadership |
Hudson Kelly | Senior Engineer & Co-Founder | Leadership |
Ethan Waite | Senior Software Engineer | Team |
Complete people profiles for Lightstream
Full employee and board profiles, team structure, tenure and professional contact details require an active premium plan.
- Full employee list
- Team structure
- Board tenure
- Professional contacts
Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
Timeline of Lightstream
5 dated milestones of Lightstream across 9 years, from founding to its latest funding, stage changes and deals.
- Founded Lightstream is founded.
- Funding First funding round.
- Funding Latest funding round, Series A, of $8.0M.
- Exit Acquired by Creative Solutions.
- Exit Acquired by Xsolla.
Competitors of Lightstream
Lightstream operates in a dynamic and competitive business environment, facing competition from various established players and emerging companies in the market. The competitive landscape includes prominent companies such as Twitch, StreamElements, Restream, Turnip and LIV, among others.
| Company Name | Domain | Founded | HQ Location | Total funding | Employees | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| twitch.tv | 2006 | San Francisco, United States | $35.12M | – | ESports social video streaming platform | |
| streamelements.com | 2016 | Tel Aviv, Israel | $111.3M | – | Monetization and engagement tools for live streaming are provided. | |
| restream.io | 2015 | Austin, United States | $56.48M | 6 | Provider of a platform to stream video content to other streaming platforms | |
| turnip.gg | 2020 | Bengaluru, India | $14.73M | 17 | Mobile games are live-streamed to YouTube and Facebook via Turnip. | |
| liv.tv | 2016 | San Francisco, United States | $13.21M | – | Provider of tools to record and live stream mixed reality content | |
| mirrativ.co.jp | 2018 | Meguro, Japan | – | – | Provider of an application for game streaming | |
| mobcrush.com | 2013 | Los Angeles, United States | $35.9M | 29 | Live game broadcasting platform for mobile gamers is provided. | |
| hearo.live | 2017 | San Francisco, United States | $2.1M | – | Esports social live streaming solutions are provided for user interactions. | |
| captain.tv | 2020 | San Francisco, United States | $10M | 7 | Live game streaming solutions are provided for community gamers. |
Detailed competitors of Lightstream
The full competitor set, operating metrics and side-by-side benchmarks require an active premium plan.
- Full competitor set
- Operating metrics
- Benchmarks
- Competitive positioning
Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
Web traffic of Lightstream
The website of Lightstream (golightstream.com) receives about 173.1K visits a month and ranks #240,431 among all websites worldwide, #8,241 in Video Games Consoles and Accessories.
- Monthly visits173.1K
▲ 6.6% vs previous month
- Unique visitors49.7K
per month
- Global rank#240,431
among all websites
- Category rank#8,241
Games · Video Games Consoles and Accessories
- Bounce rate46%
- Pages per visit3.0
- Average visit2 min 01 sec
- DevicesDesktop 60% Β· Mobile 40%
Websites whose visitors overlap most with Lightstream. Affinity shows how closely the audiences match.
| Website | Domain | Audience affinity | Monthly visits | Global rank | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| streamlabs.com | 100% | 5.5M | #10,547 | View details | |
| streamelements.com | 93% | 4.5M | #12,098 | View details | |
| twitch.tv | 90% | 1.1B | #44 | View details | |
irltoolkit.com | irltoolkit.com | 89% | – | #777,291 | β |
| own3d.tv | 86% | 349.1K | #142,501 | View details | |
| β’β’β’β’β’β’β’β’β’β’ | β’β’β’β’β’β’.com | β’β’% | β’.β’M | #β’β’β’β’β’ | β |
| β’β’β’β’β’β’β’β’β’β’ | β’β’β’β’β’β’.com | β’β’% | β’.β’M | #β’β’β’β’β’ | β |
| β’β’β’β’β’β’β’β’β’β’ | β’β’β’β’β’β’.com | β’β’% | β’.β’M | #β’β’β’β’β’ | β |
All 13 similar websites and full traffic analytics for Lightstream
The complete similar-websites list, audience overlap and engagement analytics require an active premium plan.
- 13 similar websites
- Audience overlap
- Engagement analytics
- Traffic by brand
Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
Latest news on Lightstream
Complete news archive for Lightstream
Full article history, source details, and older brand coverage require an active premium plan.
- Full article archive
- Source and publication date
- Older coverage
- Brand-specific news history
Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
Similar companies to Lightstream
10 companies that operate in the same segment as Lightstream (Gaming Platforms & Ecosystem), ranked by their profile score on The Company Check.
| Company | Description | Founded | Location | Total funding | Revenue | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Digital entertainment, e-commerce, and financial services are provided globally. | 2006 | Singapore | USD 721.47 M | USD 22.94 B | 80,700 | |
Gaming hardware and accessories are developed for players. | 2005 | Irvine, California, United States | USD 126.27 M | – | – | |
Provider of cross-platform game engine technology | 1991 | Cary, North Carolina, United States | USD 8.13 B | – | 771 | |
VR-based head-mounted displays for gaming are provided by Oculus. | 2012 | Menlo Park, California, United States | USD 107.05 M | – | – | |
ESports social video streaming platform | 2006 | San Francisco, California, United States | USD 35.12 M | – | – | |
Microsoft is recognized for software, hardware, and gaming solutions. | 1975 | Redmond, Washington, United States | – | USD 281.72 B | 228,000 | |
Blockchain-based PC and mobile games are developed and published. | 2006 | Kowloon, Hong Kong, China | USD 973.19 M | – | – | |
Custom overlay apps for PC games are developed. | 2009 | Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv District, Israel | USD 149.74 M | – | – | |
Unity is recognized as a leading real-time development platform. | 2004 | San Francisco, California, United States | USD 893.5 M | USD 1.85 B | 4,990 | |
Group voice, video, and text communication platform is provided. | 2012 | San Francisco, California, United States | USD 922.3 M | – | – |
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Frequently Asked Questions about Lightstream
Lightstream was founded in 2014 and raised its 1st funding round 1 year after it was founded.
Lightstream is headquartered in Chicago, United States. It is registered at Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Stu Grubbs is the current CEO of Lightstream. They have also founded this company.
Lightstream is a funded company, having raised a total of $9.92M across 4 funding rounds to date. The company's 1st funding round was a Seed of $120K, raised on Jun 2015.
Lightstream was founded in 2014 in Chicago, United States, within the streaming software sector. Real-time broadcasting to platforms such as Twitch, Facebook, YouTube, and others is facilitated through a web-based interface. Support is extended to Mac and Windows PCs, with no additional equipment required. Content encoding occurs via a cloud platform for delivery across devices. Pricing decisions were pending as of June 2017.
Lightstream's top competitors include Twitch, StreamElements and LIV.
Lightstream has 9 investors. Key investors include SVB, Techstars, Drive Capital, MK Capital, and Pritzker Group.
Lightstream operates through Infiniscene.
Yes. Lightstream was acquired by Creative Solutions in April 2021.
The website of Lightstream receives about 173 thousand visits a month and ranks #240,431 among all websites worldwide.

