11/6/2019 – Singapore-based Wavemaker Partners hits a US$60M first close for its US$100M fund. Investors in the Southeast Asian early-stage ventures focused firm includes Pavilion Capital, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Temasek Holdings.
Limited Partners joining the fund include Vulcan and EE Capital, the family offices of the co-founders of Microsoft and Facebook respectively, Singapore’s Keppel Corporation, multi-family office Aglaia Family Office, and Lance Gokongwei, chief executive of Philippine conglomerate JG Summit Holdings.
Wavemaker Pacific 3, L.P. or Wavemaker SEA Fund III, managed by Paul Santos and Eric Manlunas, will be focusing on seed-stage investments in the deep tech and B2B industries. The fund also announces future plans to invest in 60 startups with an initial cheque size of about US$500K.
Santos commented in a blog post following the announcement, “Most VCs in SEA invest in consumer tech. We’re grateful to have had our share of consumer success with Luxola (acquired by LVMH) and Coins.ph (acquired by Gojek).”
Despite the notable exits of consumer tech companies, Wavemaker Partners expresses its grip and focus on enterprise and deep tech startups. Drawing attention to more than 80% of their investments being made in those industries since 2012.
Santos continued, “This is where we’ve built our experience, expertise, and network. This is where our conviction and momentum have grown. With this new fund, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to continue to work with many of the best enterprise and deep tech founders in the region,”
Among the firm’s portfolio companies are beauty and lifestyle marketplace Zilingo, computing platforms companyThinCI, point-of-sale application solutions providerMoka, and fraud risk management company CashShield.
