Jungle closes fourth SE Asia, India VC fund on $600m
Jungle Ventures has reached a final close of USD 600m on its fourth flagship Southeast Asia and India-focused VC fund. The initial target was USD 350m.
It follows a first close USD 225m in September 2021 after four months in the market. Most of the capital came from existing investors such as Temasek Holdings, Bangkok Bank, and development finance institutions like the International Finance Corporation (IFC), FMO, and DEG. New LPs include Mizuho Bank and StepStone Group. Asian and global family offices also remain part of the mix.
Jungle noted that the fund brings assets under management to more than USD 1bn, establishing it as the first independent, Singapore-headquartered VC firm that invests across Southeast Asia and India to reach this milestone. Fund III closed on USD 240m in 2019, beating a target of USD 150m and more than doubling the size of the previous vintage.
Jungle was set up in 2012 by Amit Anand (pictured centre) and Anurag Srivastava (pictured left) and closed a USD 10m debut fund that year with an USD 8m commitment from Singapore’s National Research Foundation. Key early investments include Pomelo, a Thai online fashion retailer, and Livspace, a Singaporean interior design platform recently valued at USD 1bn in a KKR-led round.
Jungle claims its portfolio companies have a combined enterprise value of more than USD 12bn on USD 250m of invested capital and a loss ratio of less than 5%. The sector-agnostic early-stage investor has consistently maintained a compact portfolio of 10-15 companies per fund even as fund sizes have increased. Fund IV is expected to back 15-18 companies.
Standout investments include Indonesian cosmetics retailer Sociolla, Indian industrial B2B platform Moglix, and Indonesia consumer credit company Kredivo, all unicorns. Kredivo, also known as FinAccel, has raised more than USD 460m. It agreed last year to merge with a US-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) at an enterprise valuation of USD 2bn. The deal was later dropped.
Jungle’s approach includes a significant concentration of resources on exits; it has achieved at least 13 to date. “Exits do not happen, they need to be manufactured,” Anand told AVCJ in 2020. To this end, the firm recruited David Gowdey (pictured right), an M&A veteran who previously cut deals for TPG Capital and Yahoo, as a managing partner and exits guru in 2015.
Youth and in-house training also feature prominently in the strategy. Outside of Anand, Srivastava, and Gowdey, the average age of the investment team is 27-28. Three team members have recently been promoted to the level of managing partner, including Yash Sankrityayan, Sandeep Uberoi, and Manpreet Ratia. Sankrityayan held the title of principal as recently as November.
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