Jungle Ventures raises $100m fund for Southeast Asia and beyond

(From L to R:) Jungle Ventures founding and managing partners Anurag Srivastava, David Gowdey, Jayesh Parekh, and Amit Anand, with interim chairman of Tata Sons, Ratan Tata (center), special advisor to the VC. Photo credit: Jungle Ventures.

Singapore-based venture capital firm Jungle Ventures announced today it has completed fundraising for its second fund, achieving its target of US$100 million. That’s ten times larger than Jungle’s previous US$10 million fund, which closed in 2012.

It had raised around US$65 million in September 2015.

Jungle Ventures will look for ‘global and regional category leaders.’

Jungle Ventures founding partner Amit Anand tells Tech in Asia part of the new fund has already been deployed, in investments like Thailand’s Pomelo, Singapore’s Tradegecko, and Indonesia’s FinAccel.

The VC doesn’t reveal the total amount that has been invested from the new fund so far.

New investors include Temasek Holdings, Singapore’s National Research Foundation, and European media company Hubert Burda Media. Family offices like the Kewalram Chanrai Group and Khoon Hong Kuok have also joined in.

Amit says that 70 percent of the fund is composed of institutional capital from both regional and global players.

The way forward

The investment firm will lead in larger series A and B rounds. It will target primarily Southeast Asia but also companies in territories like India and Australia, especially if it can help them expand to this region. Its current deals range from US$3 to 5 million per company.

Armed with its new fund, Jungle will look to support its portfolio companies in later stages as well by participating in further rounds.

The VC will look for “global and regional category leaders,” according to managing partner David Gowdey. The firm will continue to focus on ecommerce – particularly on companies that try to build their own brand rather than sell third-party ones, in the vein of Pomelo. It will also look at marketplaces and at fintech companies.

Fintech areas of interest include businesses tackling consumer credit, as this ties into the VC’s ecommerce play. Credit and access to it is one of the “building blocks” of ecommerce, David explains.

Jungle Ventures founding partners Anurag Srivastava (L) and Amit Anand. Photo credit: Jungle Ventures.

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