Jungle hires former Tencent executive
Jungle Ventures has appointed Grace Xia (pictured, center), formerly senior director of corporate strategy and development at Tencent Holdings, as a principal on its investment team.
Xia spent nearly three years with the Chinese internet giant, focusing on identifying strategic opportunities in emerging markets, building an overseas product ecosystem, and deploying capital. Her most recent initiative was a $19 million investment into a joint venture with Ookbee, a Thailand-based digital magazine platform.
Prior to joining Tencent, Xia spent 10 years in investment, corporate strategy and business development, primarily in the US. Previous roles include making global strategic investments and securing partnership agreements for Dell and heading up corporate strategy and investment for Amobee, a Silicon Valley-based digital marketing company.
“We are extremely happy to have Grace join the Jungle team as she brings insights and resources that are invaluable in identifying unique investment opportunities, as well as helping our portfolio companies grow,” Amit Anand (pictured, left), co-founder and managing partner at Jungle, said in a statement.
The Singapore-based venture capital firm closed its second fund on target at $100 million in December of last year. It makes Series A and B investments of $3-5 million in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and India, as well as other markets with a connection to Southeast Asia.
Chinese companies – with Baidu, Alibaba Group and Tencent among the most prominent – are increasingly interested in accessing the rapidly expanding Southeast Asia technology sector. Jungle noted that Chinese corporates have deployed more than $3.27 billion in the region over the past two years.
“We’re committed to investing in talent and building the leading investment platform in the region – we believe that Grace will be an asset in helping us realize that vision especially as the region looks to collaborate more deeply with the Chinese tech ecosystem,” added David Gowdey, a managing partner with the firm.
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