Jungle closes Southeast Asia VC fund at $240m

Fund III was launched last year with a target of $150 million, which was increased to $200 million in December due to strong investor interest. A first close of $175 million came in April, following another increase in the target corpus to $220 million. Fund II closed at $100 million in 2016. 

LPs in the new vehicle include Temasek Holdings, Cisco Investments, IFC, DEG, FMO, and Bualuang Ventures, a VC arm of Bangkok Bank. They were joined by a group of endowments, fund-of-funds, family offices, technology companies, and development finance institutions.

More than 90% of the capital came from institutional investors, and nearly 70% came from new investors. Jungle emphasized the global appeal of the fundraise, noting that almost 60% of the capital came from outside Asia, including North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

"The traditional view of Southeast Asia is that it's a fragmented region of countries with more differences than similarities," Amit Anand, a co-founder and managing partner of Jungle, said in a statement. "Thanks to rising internet penetration, demographic shifts and mobile-technology adoption over the last decade, the region is now home to a fairly homogenous addressable market of more than 250 million cyber-sophisticated young people comparable to any developed market."

The fund will make Series A and B investments across sectors including consumer internet, financial technology, and B2B digitization services for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). The plan is to identify companies that have demonstrated early market leadership and grow them into regional category leaders through a mix of value-add levers. This effort will target three broad verticals, including consumer brands for digital natives; digital platforms for SMEs; and global tech leaders founded in Asia.

Jungle was set up in 2012 with the launch of a $10 million angel fund backed by Singapore's National Research Foundation. It closed a seed fund at $18 million last year with support from IFC, Accel Partners, Eight Roads Ventures, SGInnovate, and Tata Group chairman emeritus Ratan Tata. Previous backers also include Germany's Hubert Burda Media, Singaporean conglomerate Thakral Corporation, and Southeast Asian family offices Kewalram Chanrai Group and Khoon Hong Kuok.

While Southeast Asia is the primary market, Jungle also invests in companies outside the region where it believes it can help with expansion into Southeast Asia or globally. Portfolio standouts include Singapore-based hotel platform RedDoorz, Thailland-based fashion retailer Pomelo, and Singapore-based enterprise software provider Deskera. Last month, Jungle joined Temasek in a $40 million round for Social Bella, an Indonesian beauty and lifestyle services provider.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Venture
• Fundraising
• Singapore
• Technology
• IFC
• FMO
• Temasek Holdings