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Samreen Ahmad · · 6 min readJungle Ventures boss defends ‘unfairly judged’ SEA tech scene
Collin Furtado co-reported this story.
Jungle Ventures founding partner and managing director Amit Anand has a bold ambition for the Singapore-based VC in 2025.
“Starting Q3 next year, there should be one public listing from Jungle [Ventures’] portfolio every six months,” he tells Tech in Asia in an interview. “It will be a shame if these companies do not capture the opportunity in the public markets.”
Amit Anand, founding partner and MD of Jungle Ventures / Photo credit: Jungle Ventures
With more than 25 years of VC experience under his belt, Anand exudes confidence, making a compelling case for Southeast Asia’s IPO markets gaining momentum.
Recently, Jungle Ventures reportedly secured US$250 million in the first close for its US$600 million fifth fund – its largest so far.
The VC firm, which is active across India and Southeast Asia, has four unicorns in its portfolio: digital fintech services provider Kredivo, home interior and renovation company Livspace, software firm Builder.ai, and ecommerce player Moglix. Anand expects them all to go public within two to three years. However, he declined to share which might be first.
His confidence is in stark contrast to the reality on the ground in 2024, when only four tech companies from Southeast Asia went public: IT services provider GoHub, telehealth firm MaNaDr, ride-hailing startup Ryde, and super-app provider Topindoku.
So, what fuels the VC veteran’s conviction?
“Unfairly judged”
Anand thinks “everybody has been unfair toward Southeast Asia’s [tech ecosystem].”
He points out that the region’s startup scene started 10 to 12 years later than India’s, but it’s still expected to deliver comparable returns.
Historically, though, the returns from Southeast Asian VC funds have been the lowest globally, according to the e-Conomy SEA 2023 report.
A 1x DPI indicates that investors have received exactly how much they invested, while a 2x DPI means they have doubled their capital.
The region is approaching a tipping point, so it’s poised for transformative entrepreneurial growth akin to India’s, says Anand.
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Founding partner Amit Anand says many tech firms in the region are nearing IPOs despite tough markets.
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