Backed by Temasek, VC firm Wavemaker closes $66m venture fund for Southeast Asia

Written by: Poppy Skinner Created: 13 October 2017

The second-round of funding exceeded expectations by 32 percent, closing at $66 million.

Los Angeles and Singapore based early stage Venture Capital firm, specialising in seed stage technology and startup opportunities, Wavemaker, has made headlines yesterday with its record boosting second stage round of funding. Initially set at $50 million, it exceeded expectations to make $66 million thanks to investments from the likes of Tamasek, World Bank Group's IFC, as well as a range of smaller, privately owned companies. 

With such a host of big name investments showing support for the business, Wavemaker's success is due to be down to a combination of its differentiated business strategy combined with a recent string of successes. 

Speaking of their investment, the IFC said the following in a statement:  “Wavemaker has taken a differentiated approach in Southeast Asia with more than 80 per cent of its investments made in seed stage business-to-business (B2B) and deep technology companies led by founders with deep domain expertise."

With a focus on financial as well as digital investments, Wavemaker's portfolio includes fashion marketplace Zilingo, payment solutions Red Dot Payment and cloud communications specialist, Wavecell. 

This was the fifth round of funding for the brand with three more rounds planned for the end of the year as well as significant follow-up rounds 

Written by: Poppy Skinner

Poppy covers a wide range of topics at Billionaire, having spent the past 13 years at companies including Singapore Tatler, Her World Plus and Harpers Bazaar UK. She has a passion for fashion, jewellery and travel as well as an avaricious fascination with crime novels. Follow her at poppypskinner on Instagram.