Jungle Ventures Makes First Close Of $175 Mn Third Fund

Jungle Ventures has made the first close of its third fund at about $175 Mn. The early stage investment fund’s Indian portfolio includes LivSpace, PaySense, and Engineer.ai.

Limited partners who participated in the third fund include German investment corporation, DEG; International Finance Corporation (IFC); Temasek Holdings; Cisco Investments; President of HomeAway, John Kim; and Singaporean entrepreneur Kuok Khoon Hong.

The final close of the third fund is expected to reach $220 Mn within the next few months, according to a source who spoke to Inc42 on the condition of anonymity. With this new fund, Jungle Ventures plan to continue investing in consumer and software startups, the source added.

Founded in 2012, Jungle Ventures is a Singapore-based venture firm that invests and helps build tech startups around Asia. The firm invests in the early stages of startups and has investments across Southeast Asia.

Its first fund was closed in 2012 at $12 Mn. While its second fund came to a close in 2016 at a total of $100 Mn.

The venture fund’s last eight investments in Southeast Asia have collectively raised over $500 Mn and have seen over 50X growth in GMV during the last few years, the source added.

Overall, Jungle has invested in over 30 companies that can be segmented in three broad areas including digital consumer brands focussed on young millennials in Southeast Asia, digital platforms transforming small and medium enterprises, and in global technology solutions leaders from Asia.

Since inception, Jungle is amongst the few VCs to have successfully exited companies through mergers and acquisitions involving global brands such as Twitter, HomeAway, Rakuten and Shopclues.

Jungle’s Indian Portfolio

Jungle Venture was one of the early investors in the home decor marketplace LivSpace. Since the company’s inception in 2014, the online marketplace has raised a total funding of $97.6 Mn. Other notable investors in LivSpace include Helion Ventures, Goldman Sachs, and Bessemer Venture Partners, among others. As of September 2018, the company claims to have registered a 400% growth in gross revenue along with achieving unit-economics profitability across its previously launched markets.

Another recent investment of Jungle Venture is the software marketplace Engineer.ai. The company has raised $29.5 Mn Series A funding from Softbank and Jungle Venture in November 2018. The company claims to have over $24M in gross revenue and serves prolific customers such as BBC, Virgin Group and the San Francisco Giants.

Further, a fintech startup PaySense had raised Series A funding from Jungle Venture, Naspers and Nexus Venture Partners in 2017. Later in 2018, the fintech company raised another $18 Mn funding round led by Naspers-backed payments platform PayU. The lending startup has claimed to have reached INR 50 Cr. monthly disbursement rate in July 2018.

Other Early Stage Investment Funds

Earlier this month, Mumbai-headquartered impact venture fund Omnivore has announced the final close of its second fund at $97 Mn. The firm is focused on Indian startups developing breakthrough technologies for food, agriculture, and the rural economy.

Another early stage venture fund, DSG Consumer Partners (DSGCP) had also announced the first close of its third investment fund, also earlier in the month. The first close was made at $30 Mn. Singapore-based firm is a Seed and Series A stage venture capital firm that is focused on investing in unlisted companies in exchange for minority equity shares.

Also last month, Seoul-based SoftBank was in talks to set up a $500 Mn early stage companies focused fund. The fund is expected to be supported by SoftBank, South Korea’s National Pension Service as well as other companies and asset management firms.