Jungle Ventures hires former Google, eBay, Komli execs

Jungle Ventures, a Singapore-based early-stage VC firm that actively invests in India, has strengthened its top deck by hiring executives from Google, eBay and Komli Media.

The South Asia-focused firm has appointed Vaishali Cooper, former chief financial officer at online advertising firm Komli Media, as its new CFO. It also named former Google executive Menka Sajnani director of corporate development and former eBay executive James Lin its head of finance.

Vaishali, a chartered accountant by profession, was earlier the CFO of eBay's India arm. She will be part of Jungle's management team and will oversee the financial, accounting, tax and compliance functions. She will also oversee the performance of the investee companies and provide operating support.

Menka will be responsible for building corporate, strategic and investor relations both for Jungle and its portfolio companies. She last served as regional manager for digital solutions at Google and worked with startups and mid-sized companies in Southeast Asia. Before Google, Menka worked with Hong Kong-based LP firm Auda Asia Ltd as senior vice president. Auda, Real Estate Capital Partners and Equita combined to form HQ Capital last year.

Lin's responsibilities include overseeing portfolio financial reporting, LP reporting, due diligence on new investments and providing operating support to portfolio companies in terms of process improvements and accounting. He was previously serving as the financial controller of eBay's Australian operations.

Jungle Ventures primarily invests in tech startups based in South and Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Its Indian investments include Reddoorz, LivSpace, Moglix, Pokkt and Zipdial (acquired by Twitter). Its portfolio also includes Singapore-based travelmob (acquired by NASDAQ-listed HomeAway), GoVoyagin, Crayon Data and Tradegecko; Malaysia's iMoney and CatchThatBus; Thailand's Pomelo Fashion and Australia-based Edrolo.

In July last year, Jungle Ventures roped in former TPG Growth executive David Gowdey as managing partner. The company now has four managing partners including co-founders Anurag Srivastava and Amit Anand. Jayesh Parekh, co-founder of Sony Entertainment Television India, joined the firm in 2013 as managing partner. Tata Sons' chairman emeritus Ratan Tata is special adviser at the firm.

In August last year, Jungle Ventures said it was raising its second fund of $100 million to invest in early-stage tech startups in Asia. In September, Jungle Ventures announced the launch of a $20 million SeedPlus Singapore Fund to invest at the seed level in startups.