Singapore-based investment firm Jungle Ventures has raised $600 million for a new fund focused on India and Southeast Asia alone, said a report by Reuters. The early and growth-stage VC scaled up the fund from an initial target of $350 million due to heavy demand from investors.
Founding Partner Amit Anand told Reuters that the firm believes India and Southeast Asia are on a multi-decade trend towards digitisation, and that forms the basis of its conviction.
“We are sitting on a start of a 10-, 20-, 30-year secular trend of digitalisation,” he said, highlighting growth in online consumption as well as the adoption of online tools by small and medium businesses. “It’s a very concentrated, very high conviction investment strategy that we have been building over the last 10 years.”
The first close of the fund happened last September, and more than half the commitments for the fund have come from existing investors such as the International Finance Corporation and Dutch development bank FMO. Temasek is the headline investor name for this new fund.
The fund will only invest in 15-18 companies, signalling the larger ticket sizes it is chasing. Anand added that they see huge opportunities in B2B fintech and education technology startups.
Jungle Ventures’ Indian portfolio includes home renovation startup Livspace, ecommerce platform City Mall, and ticketing firm BookMyShow.
