International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector lending arm of the World Bank, has decided to invest up to $10 million as a Limited Partner (LP) in the second venture capital fund of Singapore-based early stage investor Jungle Ventures, it has said. IFC added it would also put in another $10 million for an IFC co-investment vehicle to invest alongside the Fund.
Last week, Jungle Ventures said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it is raising a $100 million in its second venture capital fund. According to the IFC disclosure, however, Jungle Ventures II L.p is raising $80 million.
An email query to Jungle Ventures seeking clarity on the fund size did not elicit any response by the time of filing this article.
The VC firm, which had launched a $10 million seed-to-early stage fund in 2012, seeks to invest in early stage technology companies in India, Singapore and other Asian countries through the new fund.
Its portfolio includes: Tradegecko, Travelmob (acquired by NASDAQ -listed HomeAway), Fastacash and Crayondata in Singapore; India-based Zipdial (acquired by Twitter), Livspace and Pokkt; Malaysia-based iMoney and CatchThatBus; Thailand-based Pomelo Fashion and Australia-based Edrolo.
In India it has also invested in Commeasure, which runs a B2B platform helping hotels develop their direct booking systems and in January, the fund invested in Social Audience Pvt Ltd, a company behind the data intelligence startup Tookitaki.
Last month the VC firm roped in former TPG Growth executive David Gowdey as a managing partner. With this, the company now has a team of four managing partners led by co-founders of Indian origin, Anurag Srivastava and Amit Anand as well as Jayesh Parekh, co-founder of Sony Entertainment Television India, who joined the firm in 2013.
It had also appointed Tata Sons' chairman emeritus Ratan Tata as special adviser last month. Tata joined the likes of Gokul Rajaram (product engineering lead at Square), Lim Dershing (founder of JobsCentral), Alon Sobol (director of ISP/ Telco Relationships for Spotify) and others who are existing advisers to Jungle Ventures.
