Profile: Jungle Ventures' Amit Anand

In the 10 years before co-founding Southeast Asia-focused Jungle Ventures in late 2010, Amit Anand had five different employers. This period included stints in engineering, sales, and product development for a range of technology players including Tata Infotech, as well as a 3.5-year spell as a founder-CEO.

"I think I was a recruiter's nightmare because not only was I changing jobs every two years, I was changing job profiles," Anand says. "In some sense, I was going with the flow and looking for any opportunities that could teach me something, which sometimes I think has become a lost art. I was never afraid to take chances if I could work for somebody who could be a great mentor, but I have to thank my parents for creating the environment for me to experiment and take my time finding my calling."

This instinct for opportunism led to a key turning point in the late 1990s when, after receiving his degree in computer science from Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology, Anand began preparations for graduate studies in artificial intelligence in the US. He was admitted to three of the top-20 schools, receiving a full scholarship at one and partial scholarships at the other two.  

At the same time, Singaporean enterprise software provider called Elipva offered a three-month contract that would have allowed him to squeeze in some practical international experience before moving stateside. The pitstop became permanent, however, as the dotcom bubble in the US grew ever ominous and the relatively boundless possibilities of Southeast Asia's modernization came into focus. 

"I was getting calls from my friends in the US saying, ‘Absolutely do not come here unless you are ready to wait on tables,'" Anand says. "So, I thought I could learn a lot more in Singapore joining a technology company. One thing that I have always been curious and very excited about is how there is so much more that the developing markets in Asia can do with tech and how I can play a part there. This was the start of my several decades long career at the intersection of emerging markets and technology."

Post-crisis epiphany

Over the ensuing years, he held positions at global IT players Progress Software and Fiorano Software and took a stab at entrepreneurialism with animation technology developer Ettamina Studios. Anand founded Ettamina in 2006 and enjoyed substantial success in terms of hiring talent, raising capital, and striking operational partnerships. But the macro backdrop proved uncooperative, and by 2009, the experiment had to be shut down.  

"I lost my capital, my family's capital, my friends' investments, and I had to fire a lot of people," he explains. "This was also when the global financial crisis had happened, so it was a hard time for everyone, and that's really when I started seriously thinking about the last 10 years of my life and why I had either been successful or not. It was a period of introspection."

Clarity didn't come easily, and the pressure was on to reestablish personal financial security. Anand therefore returned to the corporate sector, applying for more than 1,000 jobs, targeting a disparate range of titles that betrayed a resume without a definite career path. A standout opportunity came in the form of a regional sales manager role with a company that emphasized a preference for previous employees of Progress and Fiorano. Anand appeared to be a natural fit but didn't make the cut.   

"I had to take a step back and ask if destiny was telling me that this was not the right path for me," he says. "So, I started speaking with people close to me, and I had a realization that I have a unique knack for emerging technology trends that have big potential but also that I had a portfolio mindset, meaning that I needed different challenges to motivate me."

Throughout 2010, Anand explored this epiphany by helping entrepreneurs and investors with marketing, fundraising, and validating early-stage companies. With a growing interest in venture capital, he began a correspondence course to become a certified financial analyst but scrapped the program when it became clear that financial theory was less useful than hands-on freelance work. Standout experiences at this time included advising a start-up on a successful $40 million fundraise. 

Later that year, Anand met Anurag Srivastava, an experienced angel investor and investment committee member for Accel India who was also angling a new chapter for his career in Singapore. The pair formally set up Jungle Ventures in December 2010.

"We spent a lot of time talking about philosophies of investing, what we like, what we don't like, why we would have done something or not, rather than just rushing into investments," Anand remembers. "There was a lot of time spent aligning values, getting to know each other's strengths and weaknesses, and how we can complement each other, which I believe has led to a lot of our success."

Jungle closed its first fund in October 2012 at $10 million with two Singapore government investment matching schemes helping de-risk the plan for LPs. Anand made his first-ever investment that year with a $1 million bet on Travelmob, arguably the first start-up to bring the Airbnb model to Southeast Asia. The company went on to receive acquisition offers from both Airbnb and HomeAway, with the latter providing Jungle with its first exit in 2013.

"The first fund was a tough one, and we put our entire credibility on the line. I remember one of my advisors saying to me at the time, ‘Southeast Asia's not on anybody's mind. There are no exits, no talent. You guys don't have VC experience, it's a typical foolish entrepreneur endeavor,'" Anand says. "But we had a lot of believers. That fund was backed by a lot of family and friends, who wanted to support us, and we are extremely grateful for that."

Anand and Srivastava quickly hired Jenny Law, a compliance expert in the Singapore angel community, and for the first few years, Jungle remained essentially a three-person operation. Subsequent success naturally led to a team build-out, however, and in the past five years, the firm has grown fivefold. Making a priority of cognitive diversity, variety in experience, and complementary skillsets has guided this process; the currently 15-strong team comprises eight different nationalities.  

Scale proposition

Jungle raised $100 million for Fund II in 2016, while Fund III closed last month at $240 million. The focus remains early-stage, tech-enabled businesses across Southeast Asia. Anand notes that the growth reflects the improving reputation of the team and the Jungle brand but also the overall success of the region. 

Indeed, much of Jungle's momentum can be traced back to Anand's decision to choose Singapore over the US in the 1990s. At the time, he saw the convergence of two inflection points well before their maturation. These included a widely recognized rise in smart phone usage and internet penetration, as well as a more subtle sea change in demographics. Southeast Asia was starting to get younger, and as lifestyles changed, the business-building roadblocks associated with the region's cultural disparities began to disappear.    

"The scale that we're starting to see shows that we are now going to truly realize the potential of Southeast Asia as one homogenous market," Anand says. "For the first time in history, there's going to be 250-300 million people in the region who are extremely young, key drivers of the economy, and making all of their decisions about their future on digital platforms. For me, that was a once in a lifetime moment for the creation of new category leaders that will have long-lasting impact"

Meanwhile, Anand has maintained his commitment to exploring the nexus of economic development and technological innovation. Last year, he joined the Singapore government's advisory council for the ethical use of artificial intelligence and data. He also sits on the board of 10 of Jungle's 28 current and exited portfolio companies. 

Such engagements have resulted in a change in routine but not in vision. As Jungle has expanded and become increasingly institutional, Anand's time spent on the entrepreneurial work related to building up the firm has gradually given way to a greater relative focus on mentoring. On a personal level, this transition helps illustrate how a zigzagging career of always chasing new challenges can stabilize without sacrificing the inherent satisfaction of the hunt.   

"I don't think I've done anything longer than this in my life, but I don't feel like I'll run out of any passion for this," Anand says. "Every day you meet entrepreneurs and see either the excitement or despair in their eyes, and you want to help them. That's what's fulfilling for me. As long as I can continue to do that, whether as a VC or otherwise, I'm content with that. I like impacting the entrepreneur's journey and helping them create."   

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Venture
• Technology
• GPs
• Southeast Asia
• TMT
• Jungle Ventures