Jungle Ventures targets two IPOs a year from its portfolio
Early-stage investor Jungle Ventures is preparing its next cohort of portfolio companies to go public over the coming 18-24 months. A backer of companies such as Livespace, Moglix and Turtlemint, among others, it aims to take two companies public each year, a senior company official said.
“The market has changed, and I am fortunate in that sense that in some ways our portfolio is maturing around the same time. For us, the one thing that matters is: can our companies go public? In the spirit of investing behind opportunities, teams that are going to be built to last, a big milestone or validation point is that ability to go public,” said Amit Anand, founding partner and managing director, Jungle Ventures.
The firm took fintech company Turtlemint public earlier this year and has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for the public issue of consumer durables maker Atomberg Technologies.
“Some of our other companies such as Moglix, Livespace, Citymall, are maturing and could head towards public markets in the near future,” Anand said.
Fifth fund and new sector bets
The firm is currently investing from its $400-million fourth fund ($600 million including co-investment commitments from its limited partners), which it raised in 2022. Jungle Ventures has likely deployed 60-70% of this capital in India, its biggest market.
The firm is likely to close its $350-400 million fifth fund soon, with backing from International Finance Corporation (IFC), Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets (SIFEM), and Asian Development Bank (ADB). Co-investment commitments from these LPs are expected to push total deployed capital past $500-600 million, taking the firm’s total India investments beyond $1 billion.
The firm will focus on investing this corpus in companies spanning consumer, business-to-business, software, fintech, health-tech, and business services. It is also gearing up to hunt for investments in deeptech, manufacturing and artificial intelligence.
“I would say that for most of our earlier vintages, the majority of deals were in consumer and financial services, with 20% to 30% going into new themes each time. Sometimes it was healthcare, sometimes something else. But now we have four mainstays. Consumer and financial services are still there, but advanced manufacturing and AI have both become significant enough parts of our portfolio that they are now core pillars alongside the others,” Anand said.
Jungle Ventures’ track record in India includes several high-profile exits, such as the 2020 sale of mobile advertising platform Pokkt to Anymind Group and the 2015 acquisition of call-marketing startup Zipdial by Twitter. The firm also secured an exit from consumer credit platform PaySense in 2020 through a deal provided by Naspers (Prosus).
The firm writes cheques from the very early stage to early growth stages. Seed cheques range from $1-5 million, while Series A cheques are $3-10 million, and Series B and beyond are $10-20 million.