Lightspeed Commerce
Lightspeed Commerce provides a cloud-based unified POS, payments, e-commerce, and B2B wholesale platform for retail, restaurant, and golf businesses, serving approximately 144,000 customer locations across over 100 countries.
- Company typePublic
- Founded2005
- HeadquartersMontréal, Canada
- Headcount1,001–5,000
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Lightspeed Commerce does
Lightspeed Commerce Inc. is a Montreal-headquartered, publicly traded (TSX/NYSE: LSPD) provider of a cloud-based unified commerce platform serving approximately 144,000 customer locations across retail, restaurant, and golf verticals in over 100 countries. The platform is organized around three core products — Lightspeed Retail, Lightspeed Restaurant, and Lightspeed Golf — built on a shared modular architecture that includes embedded Lightspeed Payments, Lightspeed eCommerce, Lightspeed Inventory Management, Lightspeed Insights, Lightspeed Wholesale (NuORDER), and a growing AI layer (Lightspeed AI, OCR inventory automation, AI Showroom). Underlying components include a cloud POS engine, embedded payment processing with PCI-compliant end-to-end encryption, an Open API for custom workflows, and a multi-sided B2B marketplace connecting 4,000+ brands with 100,000+ retailers.
Lightspeed Commerce firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Lightspeed Commerce
- Legal name
- Lightspeed Commerce Inc.
- Website
- https://lightspeedhq.com
- Company type
- Public
- Founded year
- 2005
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1,001–5,000 employees
- Short description
- Lightspeed Commerce provides a cloud-based unified POS, payments, e-commerce, and B2B wholesale platform for retail, restaurant, and golf businesses, serving approximately 144,000 customer locations across over 100 countries.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Lightspeed Commerce is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Montréal
- HQ country
- Canada
- HQ region
- North America
Offices3 records
Markets served
Lightspeed Commerce business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Subscription Revenue: Recurring software subscription revenue from POS, payments, inventory management, e-commerce, and wholesale platforms. Priced via tiered subscription plans (Basic, Core, Plus) with varying feature sets.
- Transaction Processing: Payment processing fees tied to merchant transaction volumes. Embedded Lightspeed Payments generates revenue per transaction at rates starting at 2.6% + 10c per card-present transaction.
- Hardware Sales: One-time sales of POS hardware including terminals, iPads, scanners, receipt printers, and card readers. Currently offering promotional discounts up to $5,150 on hardware for new customers.
- Professional Services: Onboarding, data migration, training, and implementation services. Company offers free basic onboarding with premium paid services available.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | X-Series Basic plan includes core POS, inventory, payments, NuORDER Catalog, and eCom. |
| Subscription | Annual | X-Series Core plan adds loyalty, advanced reporting, accounting integrations, marketing integrations, and Scanner. |
| Subscription | Annual | X-Series Plus plan adds custom reporting, forecasting, API access, custom workflows, and user roles. |
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | Lightspeed Payments transaction rate for card-present transactions. |
Go-to-market motion4 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels10 records
Lightspeed Commerce product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Lightspeed Commerce sells a cloud-based unified point-of-sale and commerce platform for retail, hospitality and golf businesses. Its core offering combines POS software, embedded payment processing, inventory management, omnichannel e-commerce, B2B wholesale (NuORDER), analytics, AI-driven insights and merchant financing (Lightspeed Capital) into a single integrated system sold primarily via tiered annual software subscriptions plus transaction-based payment fees and hardware sales.
Product overview
Lightspeed Commerce offers a unified omnichannel commerce platform consisting of three core vertical solutions: Lightspeed Retail (POS for apparel, electronics, jewelry, garden, gift, bike, and other retail verticals), Lightspeed Restaurant (POS for bars, breweries, cafes, fine dining, hotels, and quick service), and Lightspeed Golf (course management). These core products share a modular architecture with integrated add-ons including Lightspeed Payments (embedded payment processing), Lightspeed eCommerce (omnichannel online selling), Lightspeed Wholesale/NuORDER (B2B commerce for wholesale operations), Lightspeed Inventory Management (multi-location stock tracking), Lightspeed Insights (analytics and forecasting), Lightspeed AI (conversational AI intelligence layer), Lightspeed Scanner (mobile inventory scanning), Lightspeed Capital (merchant financing), and vertical-specific tools like Lightspeed Tableside, Tempo, Tasks, and Reservations for restaurants. The platform is designed for mid-market and enterprise retailers, restaurants, and golf operators across over 100 countries.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Lightspeed Retail: Cloud-based POS and commerce platform for retail businesses
- Lightspeed Restaurant
- Lightspeed Golf
- Lightspeed Payments
- Lightspeed Capital
- Lightspeed AI
- Lightspeed Tableside
- Lightspeed Insights
- NuORDER by Lightspeed
- Lightspeed Wholesale
- Lightspeed Tempo
- Lightspeed Reservations
- AI Showroom
- Lightspeed Scanner
- Lightspeed eCom
Products and services
- Lightspeed Retail Cloud-based point-of-sale system for independent and multi-location retail businesses offering inventory management, customer relationship tools, omnichannel selling, integrated payments and analytics in a unified platform.
- Lightspeed Restaurant POS and operations platform for full-service restaurants, bars, breweries, cafes, fine-dining venues, hotels and quick-service operators, including tableside ordering, kitchen display systems, inventory management and restaurant-specific analytics.
- Lightspeed Golf Cloud-based golf course management software offering tee-sheet management, pro-shop POS, sales and marketing automation, reporting, website and app management, and integrated payments for golf operators.
- Lightspeed Payments Embedded payment processing solution integrated directly into Lightspeed POS, enabling merchants to accept card and digital payments with streamlined reconciliation, PCI compliance and end-to-end encryption.
- Lightspeed eCommerce Omnichannel ecommerce platform enabling merchants to sell online, on social media platforms such as Meta, and across online marketplaces from a unified system connected to the POS.
- Lightspeed Wholesale / NuORDER B2B wholesale commerce platform connecting retailers with brands through digital catalogs, purchase order management and inventory synchronization with the Lightspeed retail POS; reaches 4,000+ brands and 100,000+ retailers.
- Lightspeed Capital Business financing solution providing flexible working capital funding directly within the POS for eligible Lightspeed merchants, with simple application and repayment terms.
- Lightspeed AI AI-powered intelligence layer with conversational assistants enabling merchants to query sales, inventory and operational data using natural language for instant contextual insights, with plans to evolve into more autonomous agent capabilities.
Quantifiable outcome
- U.S.-based Lightspeed retail customers saw Same-Store GTV grow 35% in 2021 vs industry average of 18%.
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use Lightspeed Commerce
Customer profileNamed customers20 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
Lightspeed Commerce technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration18 records
AI capability8 records
Feature8 records
Lightspeed Commerce partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Five partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and flagship.
- KlaviyocoreStrategic partnership integrating Klaviyo's B2C CRM marketing automation platform with Lightspeed Retail. Enables automatic synchronization of customer profiles, sales history, and product data, allowing merchants to execute automated email, SMS, and omnichannel marketing campaigns including welcome series, post-purchase engagements, and re-engagement strategies. Targets retail, golf, and hospitality sectors.
- Skyview EquityminorAcquisition of Upserve U.S. hospitality product line by Skyview Equity for up to $81 million. Transaction includes approximately 3,200 U.S. hospitality customer locations and 70 employees. Lightspeed retained analytics technology forming foundation of Lightspeed Insights. Strategic divestiture allowing focus on core growth engines of North American retail and European hospitality.
- FairecoreIntegration providing Lightspeed Retail merchants seamless access to over 100,000 Faire B2B wholesale marketplace brands. Automates synchronization of product information including images, descriptions, variants, and cost data between systems, reducing manual data entry and operational complexity for independent retailers sourcing new products.
- BooztcoreStrategic partnership integrating NuORDER's B2B commerce platform into Boozt's operations, replacing fragmented spreadsheets and manual workflows with a centralized system connecting assortments, orders, and product data. Milestone in NuORDER's European expansion supporting cross-border operations across multiple currencies.
- NordstromflagshipExtended strategic partnership where NuORDER by Lightspeed provides Nordstrom with data-driven wholesale commerce capabilities. Supports Nordstrom's digital transformation strategy for wholesale operations, connecting assortment planning, orders, and product data in a centralized platform.
Scale indicators12 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Lightspeed Commerce competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Block (Square): Block operates Square, the most direct competitor to Lightspeed's retail and restaurant POS offering, with embedded payments, software subscriptions, and a similar SMB target customer. Both compete head-to-head for independent retailers and restaurants with tiered subscription pricing plus integrated payment processing.
- Toast: Toast is a leading cloud-based POS platform purpose-built for restaurants, directly competing with Lightspeed Restaurant in the hospitality vertical. Both offer tableside ordering, kitchen display systems, payment processing, and multi-location management for SMB and enterprise food service operators.
- Shopify: Shopify's POS offering (Shopify POS) directly competes with Lightspeed Retail for omnichannel merchants seeking integrated eCommerce and in-person selling. Both target independent retail brands with subscription software, payments, and inventory management unified across online and physical channels.
- SpotOn: SpotOn offers restaurant and retail POS solutions with embedded payments, competing directly with Lightspeed in both verticals. Both target SMBs and mid-market operators with bundled software-plus-payments pricing and aggressively pursue customer acquisition through promotional offers.
- TouchBistro: TouchBistro is an iPad-based restaurant POS system focused on full-service restaurants, directly competing with Lightspeed Restaurant for hospitality SMBs. Both offer tableside ordering, menu management, inventory, and integrated payments in a similar subscription-plus-transaction-fee model.
- PAR Technology (ParTech): PAR Technology operates Brink POS and PAR POS for both restaurant and retail verticals, directly overlapping Lightspeed's hospitality and SMB retail verticals. Both target enterprise and multi-location operators with comparable pricing structures and integrated payment processing.
- Faire: Faire operates a wholesale marketplace connecting over 100,000 brands with independent retailers, directly competing with Lightspeed's NuORDER B2B wholesale platform. Despite the partnership integration announced in 2026, Faire represents both a complementary channel and a competitive threat in connecting brands to retail buyers.
Broad incumbents
- Fiserv (Clover): Fiserv's Clover POS network serves SMB restaurants and retailers with integrated hardware and software, overlapping Lightspeed's core SMB target. As a much larger incumbent with broader financial services infrastructure, Clover competes on embedded payments and omnichannel capabilities though it does not specialize in Lightspeed's niche verticals like golf.
- NCR Voyix (Aloha): NCR Voyix (formerly NCR) operates Aloha restaurant POS and NCR Counterpoint for retail, both direct competitors to Lightspeed's flagship offerings in the enterprise and mid-market segments. As an established incumbent in POS for hospitality and retail, NCR competes on scale, enterprise relationships, and breadth of product portfolio.
Emerging players
- Club Prophet Systems: Club Prophet Systems provides golf course management software including tee sheets, POS, and member management, directly overlapping with Lightspeed Golf. As a more specialized niche player in the golf vertical, it competes with Lightspeed Golf (formerly Chronogolf) for multi-course operators, private clubs, and municipal courses.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Lightspeed Commerce social profiles
Digital presenceLightspeed Commerce compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Lightspeed Commerce financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Lightspeed Commerce leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles7 records
Lightspeed Commerce subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries4 records
Lightspeed Commerce funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds7 records
Investors6 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Lightspeed Commerce M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A13 records
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Lightspeed Commerce
What does Lightspeed Commerce do?
Lightspeed Commerce sells a cloud-based unified point-of-sale and commerce platform for retail, hospitality and golf businesses. Its core offering combines POS software, embedded payment processing, inventory management, omnichannel e-commerce, B2B wholesale (NuORDER), analytics, AI-driven insights and merchant financing (Lightspeed Capital) into a single integrated system sold primarily via tiered annual software subscriptions plus transaction-based payment fees and hardware sales.
Is Lightspeed Commerce a public or private company?
Lightspeed Commerce is a public company. It is classified as public and is currently operating.
When was Lightspeed Commerce founded?
Lightspeed Commerce was founded in 2005. It employs 1,001 to 5,000 people.
Where is Lightspeed Commerce based?
Lightspeed Commerce is headquartered in Montréal, Canada, in the North America region.
How does Lightspeed Commerce make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Subscription Revenue is the primary driver. The others are transaction Processing, hardware Sales and professional Services.
Who are Lightspeed Commerce's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Block (Square), Toast, Shopify, SpotOn, TouchBistro, PAR Technology (ParTech) and Faire. Broad incumbents are Fiserv (Clover) and NCR Voyix (Aloha). Club Prophet Systems is listed as an emerging player.
Does Lightspeed Commerce have an API?
Yes. Lightspeed offers an Open API that allows developers to build highly customized workflows and capabilities to suit specific business needs. The API enables retailers to extend the platform's functionality, though specific details on protocol type (REST/GraphQL), authentication methods, rate limits, and sandbox availability are not explicitly stated in available documentation. Developer documentation is at www.lightspeedhq.com/pos/retail/api.