Jungle Ventures, a Singapore-based early-stage investment firm, has announced the first closing of its fourth fund, after raising $225 million from existing investors that include International Finance Corporation, Temasek Holdings Pte, and German development finance institution DEG.
The fund, which is projected to be $350 million in size, would be allocated to replicate the startup’s development not only in South-East Asia (SEA) but also in India. In Southeast Asia and India, where the technology sector is flourishing, there has been a rush of funding activities as well as initial public offerings.
Jungle Ventures’ founding partner Amit Anand said, “We have coined two unicorns this year where we have been seed-to-IPO investors, and also built a franchise that will repeat quarter after quarter, and that separates us from the one-hit-wonder venture-capital providers.”
Jungle Ventures, which started its first early-stage fund in 2012, is among the fastest-growing local Investment firm in the city-state, with over $600 million in assets under management. Asia’s largest independent investment firm, with a combined profile value of more than $4 billion. The firm claims to have made over 35 investments in eight different nations.
Jungle Ventures was an early investor in Moglix, the business-to-business e-commerce company, as well as Kredivo, Indonesia’s biggest consumer loan platform, along with home-interior platform Livspace, a fashion retailer Pomelo, and beauty e-commerce marketplace Sociolla. Last week, the institution participated as an existing investor in Leap Finance’s $55 million Series C fundraising round.
The firm is focused on investing in approximately 12 to 13 companies per fund across different categories that include business-to-business (B2B), fintech, consumer internet, among others. It will also invest in technology-focused small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Jungle Ventures is very phase-agnostic, it handles Series B seeds and develops long-term relationships with a significant number of its investments.
For some time now, the Indian startup ecosystem seems to be on a boom. Whereas Indian startups raised $924 billion in 2020, they are now expected to raise a whopping $1044 billion in 2021. During April-June 2021 quarter, Indian startups have already secured $6.5 billion in overall funding, with 11 of them joining the esteemed unicorn club.
Not only Jungle Ventures has announced the closing of its fund to invest in the Indian startup ecosystem but also few other early-stage venture firms, like Prime Venture Partners and Avendus Capital, are interested to invest in India as well. Prime Venture Partners for reference announced the completion of its fourth fund, worth $100 million, with plans to invest in at least 20 new startups.
