Singapore-based early-stage investor Jungle Ventures, which has Tata Sons Ltd chairman emeritus Ratan Tata as an adviser, has raised $240 million (Rs 1,700 crore) for its third venture capital fund.
The corpus of the third fund includes $40 million in separately managed account commitments, Jungle Ventures said in a statement.
Jungle Ventures, which primarily invests in technology-oriented startups in South and Southeast Asia, had mobilised $10 million for its first fund in 2012 and $100 million for its second fund in 2016.
The third fund makes Jungle Venture one of the largest venture capital firms in Southeast Asia, the statement said. “This is an amazing milestone for the firm and the region,” it said.
The firm also said that its investment strategy remains focused on the same three themes as before: consumer brands for the digitally native; platforms that enable digital transformation of small and medium enterprises; global technology leaders born in Asia.
The new fund has already struck a few bets. These include Engineer.ai, an artificial intelligence-assisted bespoke software maker; online beauty products firm Sociolla, store management software provider KiotViet and logistics company Waresix.
Three of four partners at Jungle Ventures are of Indian origin—Anurag Srivastava, Amit Anand and Jayesh Parekh, co-founder of Sony Entertainment Television India, who joined the firm in 2013.
Jungle Ventures brought Ratan Tata as an adviser in July 2015. The same year, it had floated a $20 million seed fund to augment its investments in early-stage technology companies in the region.
VC fundraising
Meanwhile, a number of India-focussed funds have also hit fundraising milestones this year.
Earlier this month, early-stage VC firm Inventus Capital Partners hit the final close of its third fund at $52 million.
In May, homegrown venture capital firm Nexus Venture Partners received commitments from a few more limited partners for its fifth fund that has a target corpus of $450 million.
Also in May, Endiya Partners marked the first close of its second fund at $40 million. Vertex Venture Holdings Ltd, an early-stage venture capital firm backed by Singapore's Temasek Holdings, and Japanese VC firm GREE Ventures also announced fundraising milestones the same month.
Early-stage VC firm Artha Venture Fund marked the second close of its debut fund at more than Rs 100 crore in June.
Other VC firms that have announced fundraising milestones this year include impact investor Omnivore Capital Management Advisors Pvt. Ltd, deep-technology and B2B-focussed VC firm StartupXseed Ventures LLP, early-stage venture capital firm 3one4 Capital and Entrepreneur First.
