Singapore-based Wavemaker Impact, the climate-tech venture-building arm of Wavemaker Partners, has announced the first close of its debut fund to drive decarbonisation in Southeast Asia.
The fund size is around $25 million, and the firm has raised $13 million in the first close, according to sources familiar with the matter. Wavemaker Impact plans to close the fund by early next year, the sources added.
Wavemaker Impact’s limited partners include Singapore-based investment firm Pavilion Capital; JG Digital Equity Ventures, the VC arm of the Philippines’ JG Summit Holdings; Kajima Ventures; a Boston-based climate investor Grantham Foundation; as well as a number of family offices and investors in Asia and Europe.
EDB New Ventures, the venture-building arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board, has also joined Wavemaker Impact as a new strategic partner.
Launched in October 2021, Wavemaker Impact now has a presence in Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam. To date, it has introduced four new startups through its venture-building model. This includes WasteX, a startup that provides waste management solutions for agriculture producers across the region. Earlier in August, WasteX received more than half-a-million dollars of investment commitment from Wavemaker Impact.
The venture builder plans to launch up to 12 new companies in the next two years, funding them from launch to Series A, and even Series B in some cases. It believes that creating value for customers is equally important in building sustainable and profitable businesses.
“All our companies are 100×100 companies, which are businesses with the potential to reach $100 million in high-margin recurring revenue and abate 100 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year,” said Quentin Vaquette, Wavemaker Impact’s founding partner.
The firm works with serial entrepreneurs who have a deep understanding of the ins and outs of running a business. “To convert opportunities into scalable companies, we work with proven entrepreneurs, who have built businesses before, exited them, and are looking for the next challenge that will leave a legacy behind,” added Marie Cheong, Wavemaker Impact founding partner.
Wavemaker Impact is enabling business models in land use and deforestation, agriculture, mobility, industry, buildings, and energy. “We start from the carbon map that points us to where greenhouse gas emissions are in the region. Based on this, we identify customer segments that are interesting to pursue,” said Doug Parker, another founding partner at Wavemaker Impact.
Last month, Wavemaker Impact partnered with Singapore’s state investor Temasek, Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and GenZero to create a new agritech startup that will focus on minimising the carbon impact of rice cultivation.
The firm also has strategic partnerships with Enterprise Singapore and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to boost the development of green tech startups in the region.
In March, Wavemaker Partners closed its fourth fund at $136 million, which brings the firm’s total assets under management to over $300 million.