The International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group is considering an investment of $5 million in early stage venture capital firm Wavemaker Partner’s latest fund, Wavemaker SEA Fund II, a $50 million fund targeting ventures around Southeast Asia.
The fund is a Singapore-based vehicle that will target investments in companies based in and with operations in the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, concentrating on B2B and B2B2C investments, IFC said in a disclosure on Tuesday. Further, the latest fund is sponsored by a $15 million anchor investment by Wavemaker Partners III L.P., a limited partnership formed in the US. Among limited partners (LP) backing this new fund is North American venture capital investor Timothy Draper.
The fund manager of Wavemaker SEA Fund II is Wavemaker Pacific Partners, which is primarily owned by Paul Santos (Managing Partner, Singapore), Eric Manlunas (Managing Partner, LA) and David Siemer (Managing Partner, LA).
DEALSTREETASIA reported in early June that the $50 million fund was nearing a close, with Indonesia expected to be the main driver for this latest fund. Also, this is its fifth fund overall and second Southeast Asia-focused fund.
Wavemaker Partners is among the most active technology investors in the region and has at least 10 portfolio companies which count Indonesia as a key market; Wavemaker has reported at least five successful exits in the last two years which include Luxola (acquired by LVMH) and Pie (acquired by Google).
With dual headquarters in both Singapore and Los Angeles, it has over $150 million in assets under management (AUM).
In fact, IFC has been increasingly seen to be very active in the venture funding space, making capital commitments to venture funds in the region through its IFC Startup Catalyst program, which supports entrepreneurs and early stage companies through investments in various seed stage funds. In 2016, it committed $2 million to early-stage fund SeedPlus and has also committed capital to funds managed by Jungle Ventures.