Today, we are launching First Cheque@Jungle — a bespoke programme for partnering with seasoned operators at idea, pre-seed and seed stages.
Kredivo, Livspace, Moglix — these are household names in India & Southeast Asia. Our first cheque and countless hours together in the trenches helped catapult these ideas into category-defining businesses, shaping their remarkable journeys from day one and giving us incomparable learnings on enabling leading founders from the region.
Today’s founders are reaching for even more audacious goals, navigating a more complex environment, and striving to build companies that not only scale fast, but are built to last! What they need from their first investor is clear:
· A partner who matches their ambition and drive at every step
· 1:1 focus from seasoned Partners at the firm
· An anchor capital provider relationship for multiple early-stage rounds
· Respect for their experience and ambition in the amount and terms of investment
First Cheque@Jungle is based on two core concepts- focus on only a few exceptional teams with bold ideas at any given time, and a sizeable first cheque with no minimum ownership criteria.
With a strong focus on delivering unparalleled access to early-stage business building experience, the program is led only by the most experienced Partners at Jungle. Collectively we bring over 200+ years of operating experience in the region, have partnered with over 45 Founders in sectors as diverse as consumer brands & platforms, B2B and Software and have created more than $12B in enterprise value with over $2.9B in follow-on capital raised.
We are also humbled and extremely excited to have Ramakant Sharma, Sayali Karanjkar and Cameron Priest- Founders of our leading portfolio companies- join us in this journey as Venture Builders, working with Foundeers in the trenches, bringing their most recent operating insights and invaluable networks especially on early-stage product market fit and team building.
First Cheque@Jungle also introduces a first-of-its-kind investment structure that ensures right-sized early-stage capital to go after big ideas but with limited early-stage dilution. The firm will invest minimum of $2M as,
a) 50% in equity, and
b) 50% as a no-cap convertible note.
The firm is also committed to lead or co-lead subsequent Series A funding rounds, without any need for follow-on funding from other investors (although we welcome the same), with investments ranging from $5M to $10M per company. We don’t need anyone but the Founders and us to validate if we are building something to last here, and we will demonstrate it with our continued capital commitments.
FirstCheque@Jungle is sector-agnostic and invests from idea to seed stages across India and Southeast Asia. More recently we have had the privilege to partner with Patrick Barnes who is building a suite of interconnected, high performance SaaS tools for ecommerce enablement with AMP, Achmed Alkatiri who is building a house of lifestyle brands in Southeast Asia with Hypefast, and Tarun Katial in helping him build a women only, Web3-based creator and community platform at CoTo.
Interested to know more? Read here or write to us at firstcheque@jungle.vc