Jungle Ventures launches program to invest in early-stage startups

Under the programme, called First Cheque, Jungle Ventures will have three of its current and former portfolio startup founders join the investment team. They are Ramakant Sharma of Livspace, Sayali Karanjkar of PaySense and Cameron Priest of TradeGecko. The founders will provide the startups with operating insights and help them with early-stage product-market fit and team building.

The firm said it will invest a minimum of $2 million in each startup, half of which will be an equity investment and the other half in the form of a no-cap convertible note.

Amit Anand, partner at Jungle Ventures, told VCCircle the funds will come from Jungle Ventures’s latest $600 million fund and that the founders will also invest in their own capacity as angel investors. He added that First Cheque is sector-agnostic and will 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, he said.

Jungle Ventures was set up by Anand and Anurag Srivastava and secured $10 million for its first fund in 2012. It raised $100 million for its second fund in 2016 and $240 million for its third in 2019. It closed its fourth fund in May 2022, managing to raise $600 million, far more than its initial target 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.

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Updated: 11 Oct 2023, 12:25 PM IST