Wavemaker closes third SEA fund at US$ 111M

Wavemaker Partners, Southeast Asia’s leading VC firm, has announced the close of its third Southeast Asia (SEA) fund at US$ 111M, exceeding its initial target of US$ 100M.

The third SEA fund was backed by new investor Concentric Equity Partners and existing investors Pavilion Capital, Temasek, IFC, and Vulcan Capital.

Wavemaker’s previous fund closed at US$ 66M. It marked one of the largest early-stage fund focused on enterprise and deeptech start-ups in the region. The goal of the fund is to invest in 60 companies with an initial check size of approximately US$ 500K.

About Wavemaker

Founded in 2012, Wavemaker has built a wide-ranging portfolio across industry verticals like financial services, healthcare, agriculture, horizontal processes like HR, sales and marketing, and technologies like AI, IoT, additive manufacturing.

Presently, Wavemaker has invested in 130 startups including 100 enterprise-focused start-ups with 40 being deeptech and AI focused start-ups. A few of these companies backed by Wavemaker include Zilingo​, ThinCI​,​ CashShield​, L​ynk​, ​Structo,​ ​Growsari,​ ​Igloohome, Silent Eight, Novade, GudangAda and Transcelestial. Additionally, Wavemaker also has some exits to its name including start-ups like Indonesian mobile point-of-sale system Moka (acquired by Gojek), cloud communications software company Wavecell (acquired by 8×8) and regional payments solutions provider Red Dot Payment (acquired by PayU/Naspers).

Recently, Gavin Lee, former leader of Wavemaker’s investment team, promoted to general partner.

Statement from Wavemaker

Wavemaker’s fundraising has come at a crucial time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many cash-burning startups have fallen out with investors who are losing patience due to the failure to turn a profit.

Managing Partner, Paul Santos said, “We’re grateful to be able to achieve our fund target despite the tough economic environment.”

In addition, he said, “we are hopeful about our focus on investing in enterprise and deeptech start-up.”

They solve meaningful problems with superior, differentiated offerings and robust unit economics, which will pay off in the long term.