Wavemaker Partners

Our Story

Wavemaker Partners is the leading VC group that builds and invests in early- to growth-stage startups in the B2B, Deep Tech, and Sustainability/Climate tech sectors in Southeast Asia and expanding further.

Since our establishment in 2012, we have made 200+ investments, with US$XXM+ in total capital raised across different funds and over US$XXB+ in exits. Here’s our story.

2012

Eric Manlunas and Paul Santos founded Wavemaker Partners in Singapore on a mission to back entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia who were solving meaningful problems but often overlooked for their unconventional ideas.

As former entrepreneurs, they understood the challenge of raising early-stage funding.

Eric Manlunas (left) and Paul Santos at a conference in Bali

On the other hand, Paul had built 6 companies, exited 3, and then moved to Singapore to begin a new path as an angel investor. He and Eric invested in a few deals together before deciding to set up Wavemaker.

Paul Santos

Wavemaker raised US$6.7M for its Fund 1

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At the time, Eric, who had already exited 2 startups, had co-founded Wavemaker’s predecessor firm Frontera in the US.

He led Frontera to US$100M+ in AUM and 200+ portfolio companies across 4 funds from 2003 to 2022. Frontera focused on the Seed stage, filling the gap between angel and Series A funding before “seed” became mainstream. Eric was also making angel investments on his own.

Eric Manlunas

Southeast Asia wasn’t receiving the level of investment we see today. There were more startups than there was funding. With curious minds, Paul and Eric explored the region to develop their investment thesis.

Wavemaker had a mixed bag of early investments, including the likes of Luxola (B2C) and TradeGecko (B2B). While these were in different domains, both were overlooked by many investors.

2015

In true Wavemaker fashion, Eric and Paul asked themselves the question we typically ask founders we meet: “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?” This often leads to insights that help founders create real value.

For the duo, the unconventional truth was that when B2C was attracting all the attention, there were massive opportunities in unpopular areas like B2B and Deep Tech. They also believed the best venture opportunities in Southeast Asia were companies that addressed local nuances, instead of copying proven models imported from elsewhere.

Eric Manlunas (left) and Paul Santos at a conference in Bali

As Eric and Paul built this conviction, Wavemaker began raising its Fund 2 with a US$50M target, investing in startups like Silent Eight in Singapore and Growsari in the Philippines.”

At Wavemaker, a core investment tenet is “Opportunity = Value – Perception”, where the best opportunities emerge when the actual value of an investment far exceeds its perceived initial value.

2017

Wavemaker raised US$63.5M for its Fund 2

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Now with a clear focus on B2B and Deep Tech, Wavemaker Partners closed its Fund 2 at US$63.5M, exceeding its target and a huge leap from Fund 1. It became the largest early-stage fund focused on Enterprise and Deep Tech startups in Southeast Asia.

2018

By this time, Wavemaker was raising its Fund 3. Still on a mission to fund the often overlooked, we invested in eFishery, an aquaculture startup that has since become one of Indonesia’s unicorns.

Farmers who had been using eFishery feeders can get about 5 harvests a year compared to the average 3

At Wavemaker, a core investment tenet is “Opportunity = Value – Perception”, where the best opportunities emerge when the actual value of an investment far exceeds its perceived initial value.

Back then, eFishery was seeking VC funding after selling a few feeders to farmers, who were seeing great results. However, the business was a tough sell to the conventional investors. The startup often invited VCs to visit its farmers’ ponds to see the traction for themselves, but rarely anyone 
showed up."

2020

Wavemaker raised US$111.5M for its Fund 3

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The team had also expanded regionally, with members spread across several markets: Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.”

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Then came another turning point–COVID-19 struck, prompting a global downturn and testing the resilience of our portfolio.

While it was challenging, it began to validate our approach, it kept us motivated in our mission 
to support founders in solving meaningful problems.”

Fund 3 closed at US$111.5M, surpassing its US$100M target. It was a pivotal point for Wavemaker, as it welcomed notable institutional limited partners like:

Along the way, we also welcomed several venture partners such as: 

We added a new focus area–Sustainability. Internally, we launched an initiative called  “Green Wave” to help the Wavemaker team and its community become more sustainability-focused.

Some of the efforts taken under the initiative include going carbon neutral, running sustainability workshops for our founders, and mapping its portfolio of startups against the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

We found that over 80% of our active portfolio was contributing to at least one SDG.”

2021

As the world navigated through the rippling effects of COVID-19, Wavemaker in October 2021, launched Wavemaker Impact. The fund is the first climate tech-focused venture builder in Southeast Asia that aims to help in the fight against climate change.

(From L-R) Quentin Vaquette, Doug Parker, Marie Cheong, 
Paul Santos, and Steve Melhuish

With existing technology, we already have the solutions to cut global carbon emissions by 50%, but we need to create incentives to disrupt traditional businesses, change behaviour, and drive adoption.”

Wavemaker Impact partners with proven entrepreneurs to build ‘100×100’ climate-tech ventures with the combined goal of reducing the global carbon budget by 10% by 2035.

‘100×100’ companies have the potential to reach US$100M in high-margin revenue and abate 100M tons of CO2e emissions per year. 

Wavemaker Impact and UNDP announced a partnership to support the development of scalable and sustainable technology companies

2022

Wavemaker raised US$136.1M for its Fund 4

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As the world navigated through the rippling effects of COVID-19, Wavemaker in October 2021, launched Wavemaker Impact. The fund is the first climate tech-focused venture builder in Southeast Asia that aims to help in the fight against climate change.

Among our notable Fund 4 investments is Lhoopa, a proptech launched in 2018 that’s building affordable housing on a large scale using a unique blend of technology and decentralised operations, empowering a network of partners, such as contractors and brokers, without the need for Lhoopa’s on-ground presence.”

Meanwhile, at our Annual General Meeting celebrating our 10th anniversary, we announced the launch of our charitable organisation: Wavecrest.
Wavecrest aims to transform the lives of academically talented but economically disadvantaged students by providing them with opportunities to thrive and excel.

Marking our 10th year in the Southeast Asia ecosystem, Wavemaker Partners closed our Fund 4 at US$136.1M, exceeding our initial goal of US$120M.

It was still the largest fund for B2B, Deep Tech, and Sustainability spaces in the region. The close brought our total capital commitments for the early-stage fund to US$300M+.

We also welcomed our new General Partner Andy Hwang—an angel investor, startup coach, and a former global leader at tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Stripe.

What attracted me most to Wavemaker were the testimonials from startup founders about how Wavemaker bet on them when nobody else would, and built a partnership based on curiosity and trust rather than a scripted playbook.”

But the funding winter started to set in. Interest rates went up, putting pressure on the public markets, which in turn, put pressure on private market valuations, especially in the later stages. Investors began shifting their focus toward quality, defensible investments, instead of popular startups with a growth-at-all-costs mindset.

While it was a tough period overall, there was a silver lining for us at Wavemaker. The winter served as a validation of our real-value investing approach and opened up opportunities for us in highly competitive and high-priced markets like Indonesia.

In Indonesia, we invested in startups like Fit Hub and Soul Parking at the height of funding winter.”

2023

By end-2023, Wavemaker Impact announced the close of its debut fund at US$60M, surpassing its initial target by 2.5x.

Its LPs include, among others:

Team Wavemaker Impact

At Wavemaker, a core investment tenet is “Opportunity = Value – Perception”, where the best opportunities emerge when the actual value of an investment far exceeds its perceived initial value.

There’s a paradigm shift in the investor community’s perspective, with growing belief that climate tech ventures can be profitable, high growth investments that significantly contribute to the fight against global warming.”

2024

In our 12th year, as many of our portfolio companies successfully scaled, we realised that a major issue continues to persist: the significant funding gap for growth-stage companies.

To complement our early-stage fund, in XX, we launched Wavemaker Growth with a US$XXM first close. Our goal is to support our existing portfolio companies in the Series B and above stages to help them achieve exits.

0 to 1 with Early-Stage, 1 to 100 with Growth.”

In addition, this year we also unveiled our rebrand, making Wavemaker Partners the parent brand and renaming our early-stage fund to Wavemaker Ventures.

This marked the beginning of a new chapter for the Wavemaker Group, as we our presence across the entire lifecycle of a business. This shift positions us to build even more momentum and strengthen our network effects.