Singapore-based venture capital firm Jungle Ventures on Wednesday said it has launched an investment programme, aimed at investing in startups at the pre-seed and seed stages.
Under the programme, First Cheque, Jungle Ventures will also have three of its current and former portfolio startup founders namely Ramakant Sharma of Livspace, Sayali Karanjkar of PaySense and Cameron Priest of TradeGecko, joining the investment team.
The founders will also provide the startups with operating insights and aid in networks about early-stage product market fit and team building.
In terms of the quantum of investment which is earmarked for startups, the firm said that it will invest a minimum of $2 million, out of which 50% of the quantum will be an equity investment and the remaining quantum of 50% will be in the form of a no-cap convertible note.
In an interaction with VCCircle, Amit Anand, partner at Jungle Ventures, said that the investments made will be from Jungle Ventures’ latest $600 million fund and additionally the founders would be part of the investment by their own capacity as angel investors.
In terms of the sectors that the programme is focused on, Anand said that the First Cheque is sector-agnostic and plans to invest in startups across India and Southeast Asia.
It also aims to lead or co-lead growth stage funding rounds, with investments ranging from $5-10 million per startup.
Jungle Ventures was set up by Anand and Anurag Srivastava. The firm secured $10 million for its debut fund in 2012. It raised $100 million for its second fund in 2016 and $240 million for its third vehicle in 2019.
It closed its fourth fund in May 2022 as it managed to raise $600 million, higher than its initial target corpus of $350 million.
Its India portfolio includes insurtech platform Turtlemint, edtech company Leap, blue-collar workforce management firm BetterPlace, social commerce platform CityMall, and consumer appliances startup Atomberg.
In August, the firm absorbed early-stage VC firm HealthXCapital to strengthen its presence in the healthcare sector across India and Southeast Asia.
