Wavemaker Partners, one of Southeast Asia’s most active early-stage venture capitalists, is now pulling out big cheques for growth-stage startups in the region.
The fund manager has launched its first fund for growth-stage startups as the group rebrands to segregate each strategy across early-, growth-stage, and impact fund families.
The fresh strategy, dubbed Wavemaker Growth, has made a $30 million first close gathering commitments from QLA Investment and Cercano Management, according to a release on Wednesday. The debut fund in the franchise is targeting $60 million in final close and $100 million in hard cap.
Wavemaker Growth plans to invest in eight to 12 companies, with a ticket size of around $3 million to $8 million as part of syndicate rounds in the region of $20 million, which may include other equity and debt investors.
It plans to double down on growth-stage fundraising rounds of the group’s existing portfolio companies, focusing on startups in enterprise, deeptech and sustainability sectors looking to raise Series B rounds and beyond.
The launch marks a major move for Wavemaker, a longtime investor in Southeast Asian early-stage companies. Wavemaker Growth aims to bridge the operational and funding gaps that startups encounter as its businesses expand.
“Many promising startups have struggled to secure Series B funding due to a lack of specialised support and capital in the region,” its announcement said, claiming that about 20% of its portfolio companies of over 200 raised growth capital in the past five years.
“By unifying our efforts under Wavemaker Partners, we can provide comprehensive support to startups at every stage of their journey,” said Wavemaker Partners’ co-founder and managing partner Paul Santos, who’s also a founding partner for the growth strategy.
GrowSari’s co-founder Shiv Choudhury and Xue Koh, who runs Boon Hwee Koh’s family office, are joining Wavemaker Growth as founding partners.
“I’m excited to… help fellow entrepreneurs make the jump from early stage to the next one. As a founder, a lot changes in this phase including your mindset, redesigning your go-to-market playbooks, how you build your team, and how you fundraise,” said Choudhury.
Under the rebranding, its flagship strategy for early-stage investments is now called Wavemaker Ventures. The strategy, which manages $500 million in assets, has backed over 200 companies across the region, including eFishery, GrowSari, Lhoopa, and Silent Eight.
DealStreetAsia reported earlier this year that the group is in the market to raise money for its fifth flagship fund. Sources told DealStreetAsia around June that the firm is targeting around $150 million.
In 2021, the group ventured into the world of impact investing with Wavemaker Impact, and set out to be a climate tech venture builder for the region. The strategy closed its first fund at $60 million in hard cap in December 2023.
