Wavemaker closes third SEA fund at $111m

Los Angeles- and Singapore-based VC firm Wavemaker Partners has closed its third Southeast Asia fund at US$111 million, exceeding its target of US$100 million.

Wavemaker Partners managing partner Paul Santos / Photo credit: Wavemaker

New investor Concentric Equity Partners joins the firm’s existing institutional backers, which include Pavilion Capital, Temasek, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Vulcan Capital. The new fund has a total of 73 limited partners, according to a statement.

Wavemaker has focused on backing enterprise and deep-tech startups since 2012. The company previously said that its SEA Fund 3, which will be managed by partners Paul Santos, Eric Manlunas, and Gavin Lee, aims to invest in 60 new companies with an initial check size of about US$500,000.

“We’re grateful to be able to achieve our fund target despite the tough economic environment,” said Santos. “We’re hopeful that our focus on investing in enterprise and deep-tech startup teams that solve meaningful problems with superior, differentiated offerings and robust unit economics will pay off in the long term.”

See: From WTF to FTW: Wavemaker on making mistakes and producing exits

In 2017, Wavemaker’s second fund secured US$66 million from Temasek, IFC, and veteran investor Tim Draper, among others.

The company, which manages upward of US$180 million in assets under management, said it has invested in over 130 startups to date, with more than a hundred focused on enterprise tech.

Companies that recently raised funding from Wavemaker include construction site management software startup Novade, Indonesian business-to-business e-marketplace GudangAda, and laser-based communications startup Transcelestial.

Other notable investments in Wavemaker’s portfolio include Coins (acquired by Gojek), Moka (also acquired by Gojek), Wavecell (acquired by cloud communications firm 8×8), and Red Dot Payment (acquired by Naspers).