Fund focus: Jungle plans tech cross-pollinations

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the most politically diverse region in Asia Pacific is tracking its venture capital boom across a number of themes related to internationalization. Southeast Asia has seen several fundraisings this year on the back of rising global interest in its growing markets as well as the cross-border potential of its entrepreneurs.

The most recent of these is Singapore-based Jungle Ventures' second fund, which closed on target at $100 million. It will make Series A and B investments of $3-5 million with an emphasis on targeting the 100-200 million consumers across the region with the highest per capital GDP. This approach aims to help a young start-up ecosystems transcend the limitations of their home countries through broader marketing plays and will encompass Indian and Australian companies on an opportunistic basis, where businesses may benefit from expansion into Southeast Asia.

"We believe the big opportunity in the region is to back category leaders that can cut across markets," says Amit Anand, founder and managing partner at Jungle. "Most entrepreneurs in the region are first time entrepreneurs that have never built businesses before, let alone regional or global businesses."

Compared to Jungle's locally backed debut vehicle of $10 million in 2012, Fund II represents a 10-fold increase in investor interest. Meanwhile, the number of deal proposals Jungle has received since it launched its first Southeast Asia fund has increased from 200-250 a year to more than 2,000 during the past 11 months alone, mostly from Singapore and Jakarta.

This growth spurt has coincided with some significant changes in Jungle's management, including the introduction of TPG Capital veteran David Gowdey as managing partner. Subsequent appointments include former eBay financial controller James Lin as head of finance, and Menka Sajnani, previously with Google and HQ Capital, as director of corporate development.

Anand says this new bench was an important factor in attracting a more diverse range of LP backers. About 70% of capital behind Fund II comes from global institutional investors such as Temasek Holdings, Singapore's National Research Foundation and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), as well as Germany-based Hubert Burda Media and the family offices Kewalram Chanrai Group and Khoon Hong Kuok. Several US family offices are also involved.

"In some ways, we have to practice what we preach to our founders - that eventually it comes down to the team you build, execution, insights and the networks your group has," Anand says, adding that his team has achieved four mid-sized exits across the past four years. "We're strong believers that exits need to be created, they don't just happen. Our LPs appreciate that mindset, because they're not just looking for outlying returns - they're also looking for consistent liquidity."

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Fundraising
• Venture
• Singapore
• Jungle Ventures