S’pore VC renews S-E Asia, India bets with Us$600mil fund

SINGAPORE: Singapore-based Jungle Ventures has raised Us$600mil (Rm2.63bil) in a new fund backed by new and existing investors including Temasek, the latest venture capital (VC) firm to target more money on investments in South-east Asia and India.

The fundraising for the fourth Jungle Ventures fund, among the largest regionally, comes amid a technology boom that has accelerated as more consumers moved online during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We are sitting on a start of a 10, 20, 30-year secular trend of digitalisation,” said Amit Anand, Jungle Ventures’ founding partner, highlighting changing consumption patterns and adoption of online platforms by small and medium businesses.

The decade-old firm, which says it was the first independent, Singapore-headquartered VC firm to invest in South-east Asia and India, said it scaled up the fund due to heavy demand after an initial target of Us$350mil (Rm1.54bil).

The first close of the fund took place in September.

More than half the commitments for the latest fund came from existing backers including International Finance Corp and Dutch development bank FMO, Jungle Ventures said in a statement.

The remainder came from new backers such as Mizuho Bank, global private markets investor Stepstone Group and many family offices, Anand said.

Despite a sharp fall in equity markets this year, especially in tech firms, companies with strong margins and robust businesses would still attract investor interest, he said.

“In today’s environment, it’s going to get harder for the next three to four months for both investment funds as well as founders. But I think that’s a short-term blip,” Anand told Reuters.

He expects investor interest in tech firms, including in initial public offerings, to recover towards the later half of this year. — Reuters