Singapore-based venture firm Jungle Ventures is digging deeper into Southeast Asia and India by closing its fourth fund. Fund IV has a total value of $600 million, of which $450 million is for new investments and $150 million for follow-on investments in its portfolio companies. The fund’s closing brings Jungle Ventures’ total assets under management to more than $1 billion, making it the first independent Singapore-headquartered company to invest in Southeast Asia and India to reach this milestone.
Fund IV’s limited partners are split equally between returning and new investors. Returning backers include Temasek, IFC, FMO, and DEG, while new LPs include StepStone Group. The blog line covered the fund’s initial close of $225 million in September 2021.
Jungle Ventures was founded in 2012 by Amit Anand and Anurag Srivastava and started with a debut fund of $10 million. Jungle Ventures has about 60 portfolio companies and says its enterprise value is more than $12 billion on $250 million invested capital, with a loss ratio of less than 5%.
Some of Jungle Ventures’ most notable investments include the unicorns Kredivo, Livspace, and Moglix. It looks for companies that can expand between Southeast Asia and India; For example, Livspace was founded in India and is now active in Southeast Asia.
Fund IV will continue Jungle Ventures’ ‘concentrated portfolio’ approach, with 15 to 18 key investments expected in India and South East Asia. It makes a lot of follow-up investments and has invested about $30 million to $40 million in some companies over multiple rounds.
“Since our foundation in 2012, we have been investing with that philosophy. It is driven by two main factors that have influenced our thinking. Factor number one is that most of the founders in this region are first-time founders. You need a lot of help and support to give these founders to help them grow their business, help them grow as a leader,” Anand told blog line: “Becoming a founder to CEO is a very long journey, a very painful journey, and not many people become successful CEOs.”
He added: “This region is completely under-penetrated in every sector, and we would rather spend our time, energy, and capital on investing less to make them bigger.”
Fund IV has already supported the Vietnamese digital bank Timo; Singapore back office operating system Tight; Indian D2C consumer electronics brand Atomberg; Web3.0-based social crypto community platform for women Eveworld; and a SaaS employee retention platform.
“If I were to step back and just think of a single overarching statement, I would say that we are now very, very inspired by the whole decentralization and just internet movement that is happening around the world, be it concepts like Web 3, or its concepts like even social commerce, whether it be the digitization of SMB technology,” said Anand. “Essentially, the most exciting aspect of this fund is bringing the power of the Internet to that smallest participant in the Internet economy.”
