Reimagining Singapore’s place in the global equity market
SGX hosts Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong and venture capital firms and their portfolio companies for a dialogue on revitalising local equities markets. Photo credit: SGX When things aren’t working as well as we’d like, we typically have three choices: criticise and complain, accept it and live with it, or try to do […]
How B2B investor Wavemaker Partners views Indonesia’s B2C scene
Almost all of Indonesia’s unicorns and decacorns are B2C companies, except perhaps two. But that’s not surprising at all. Indonesia is a goldmine of a consumer market—it boasts a staggering population of 270 million people, making it the largest in Southeast Asia and the fourth-largest in the entire world. The country is also becoming more […]
Creating enduring impact by solving real-world problems
If there was one undeniable truth that emerged this funding winter, it is the power of addressing real-world problems. Ventures that thrive during downturns and withstand cost cuts are the ones solving genuine pain points and delivering unmistakable value to their communities. At Wavemaker Partners, our investment thesis has always revolved around supporting entrepreneurs with unique […]
Designing your organisational structure: A blueprint for strategic execution
In the previous articles of the Culture mini-series, we looked at how values and strategy impact an orgnisation’s culture. In this article, we explore organisational structure as a powerful driver of culture. When our portfolio company Lhoopa, a digital real estate platform that enables the large-scale deployment of affordable homes, raised their pre-B bridge round […]
Bridging the Values gap: What we say vs what we do
Welcome to our mini series, “Key insights on building a healthy organisational culture.” On this journey, we explore the profound impact of intentional culture design on organisations, unravelling its intricacies through the lens of 5 essential elements: Values, Strategy, Structure, Process, and People. When we talk about a company’s culture, we’re not just throwing around […]
Key insights on building a healthy organisational culture
As an early-stage founder, you may encounter one or more indicators of an unhealthy organisational culture: complacency leading to unmet revenue targets, high employee turnover rates, hesitation from team members to challenge leaders and offer unique perspectives, or the lack of accountability from employees. These cultural indicators are often perceived as “people problems,” leading you […]
Mitigating climate change with venture capital: A conversation with Wavemaker Impact’s Steve Melhuish
Human activity began altering the climate in the mid-19th century, when the industrial revolution began unleashing unprecedented amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. But an innovative new venture capital (VC) climate tech venture builder is trying to mitigate some of the ensuing catastrophic climate change with a laudable and lofty goal: reducing 10 percent of […]
“Emerging” Emerging Markets Venture Capital
In my last blog post, we built the case for why LPs should seek exposure to nascent digital ecosystems to drive outsized returns within their VC portfolios. One stand-out statistic was that most of the top-quartile performers in the Cambridge Associate VC data set were GPs raising one of their first few funds (otherwise termed […]
Investing in alternative meat–do you have the stomach for it?
The alternative protein industry has been the darling of venture capital investors until recently. Plant-based meat, the industry’s main driver that has attracted the most capital, is now seeing a slowdown in sales and waning investments as it falls short of its early promises. Products on the market remain uncompelling for the masses in terms […]
B2B startups look more attractive in tough climate, but VCs need different skills for this game
WARY venture capital (VC) investors are scrutinising pitch decks and financials as they hunt for returns in a tough climate, and the business-to-business (B2B) angle is starting to look more rewarding than consumer-facing ventures. B2B startups typically have better capital efficiency and are less likely to be burning cash to acquire new customers. Their strategies […]