VC firm Jungle Ventures raises $225M to invest in India, Southeast Asian startups

Singapore-based early and growth-stage venture capital firm Jungle Ventures has raised $225 million in the first close of its fourth fund to invest in Southeast Asian and Indian startups.

The round saw participation from investors, including Temasek Holdings Pte, International Finance Corp., and DEG, a German development finance agency.

According to a Bloomberg report, the new fund's anticipated size is $350 million, as stated by founding partner Amit Anand in an interview.

“We have coined two unicorns this year where we have been seed-to-IPO investors,” Anand said. “We have built a franchise that will repeat quarter after quarter, and that separates us from the one-hit-wonder venture-capital providers.”

Jungle Ventures has grown to become one of the fastest-growing local VC companies in the city-state, with assets under management of almost $600 million since opening its first early-stage fund in 2012.

The firm is an early investor of Moglix, a business-to-business e-commerce platform, and Kredivo, Indonesia's largest consumer loan app, as well as Livspace, fashion retailer Pomelo, and Sociolla, a beauty e-commerce platform.

Jungle Ventures offers a focused approach to investing, typically investing in 12 to 13 firms every round. It invests in companies at all stages, from seed to Series B, and many of its investments form long-term partnerships.

This strategy has shown to be effective, according to Anand. FinAccel and Moglix are two unicorns from its 2016 Fund II, and it is currently paying roughly 7x on the fund. “A similar pattern is emerging from the 2019 vintage,” he continued, citing investments such as Sociolla, a beauty e-commerce platform, and KiotViet, Vietnam's largest point-of-sale and shop management system for small businesses.

Commenting about business in Indian and SouthEast Asia, Anand said, The cross-pollination of talent and ideas, learning and capital between Southeast Asia and India is very strong. Southeast Asia, even though the ecosystem is growing a lot, the tech talent here in the region is still emerging, whereas India is a great source of tech talent, and we’ve enabled a lot of our portfolio companies to leverage that by opening up tech hubs in India.”

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