Jungle Ventures

The past year has brought our portfolio closer to the public markets than ever. With one company listed, another cleared for its public issue, and more preparing for the journey, we’re seeing our founders’ long-term ambitions take shape as the market itself evolves.

Alongside this, our portfolio has grown in new directions. Consumer and financial services continue to anchor what we do, and advanced manufacturing and AI have become core pillars that we’ll keep building on with our next fund.

Our Founding Partner @amitvedand spoke to @livemint about this phase for the portfolio, the themes shaping our next chapter, and our deepening commitment to India.

Read more: livemint.com/companies/news…

@amitvedand • @BeriArpit68303 • @rishabmalik • @AmritRaj86

How do you build a brand in a category where customers already have plenty of familiar options?

That was the starting point for our seed panel at D2C Unboxed, with @arindam___paul, CBO at @atomberg_tech, Aakash Anand, founder of @Rotoris & BellaVita and, and Lavish Soni, who spent a decade building The House of Rare, in conversation with @rishabmalik, Managing Partner at Jungle Ventures.

Here’s what we’d want every early-stage founder to take from the chat: (1/3)

Building a consumer brand goes well beyond the brand. At D2C Unboxed, Shashi Kumar, Founder of @akshayakalpa, and Vedang Patel, Founder of @thesouledstore, joined @BeriArpit68303, Managing Partner at @jungleventures to show us how much of it happens in the backend.

Here’s what we’d want every founder building a consumer brand to take from the chat ↓ (1/4)

Every consumer founder eventually asks how a brand stays relevant as its customer changes. At D2C Unboxed, @AryamanBirla shared how the @AdityaBirlaGrp has answered that across generations of brands.

He joined @amitvedand, Founding Partner at @jungleventures, for a fireside chat to close our invite-only evening for India’s D2C and consumer brand ecosystem in Mumbai.

Here’s what we’d want every founder building a consumer brand to take from it:

𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗰𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻: Allen Solly once gave Indian men a reason to dress differently on Fridays. Brands could lead the customer back then. Today’s customer knows what they want, so the brands that last are the ones that listen first.

𝗞𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝘅𝗲𝗱, 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿: Madura has stayed obsessed with quality, almost to a fault, because customers come back for the product. What it changed was everything around it, from where it sells to what it sells and how it markets, following the customer each time they changed the way they shop.

𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁: When TMRW looks at a brand, it looks for a founder and a distinct niche identity it can build on. It then checks the brand’s health through customer reviews, NPS, its mix of online and offline sales, and whether the economics work.

𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗲𝗹𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱: Aryaman’s test is whether people think your brand is far bigger than it actually is. Amit added that investors look for the same signal in the data, in retention or engagement far ahead of peers.

𝗣𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰𝘀, 𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘂𝗽𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲: Even @RCBTweets (RCB), a brand Aryaman calls the best in the @IPL, was underwritten on its cash flows, with the brand priced into the premium.

Every consumer founder has a decision they keep turning over, and the fastest way through it is usually hearing how someone a few years ahead made the same call.

So last Friday, in Mumbai, we put them in the same room. At D2C Unboxed, founders who have taken their brands from a website to shelves across the country sat alongside founders still building their first, trading notes on the calls that shaped their brands, the hard ones included.

@AryamanBirla, Director at @AdityaBirlaGrp, joined Amit Anand, our Founding Partner, for a fireside on building new-age brands from within one of India’s oldest business houses, a perspective few in the room get to hear up close.

Thank you to Shashi Kumar, Vedang Patel, Lavish Soni, @arindam___paul, and Aakash Anand for opening up about their journeys so generously.

Detailed takeaways from the sessions are coming soon.

@amitvedand • @BeriArpit68303 • @rishabmalik • @AmritRaj86