Southeast Asian venture capital firm Wavemaker Partners has appointed Andy Hwang as a general partner, according to a statement.
Hwang, a longtime angel investor with stints at Facebook and Stripe, will join Wavemaker’s investment committee and work closely with managing partner Paul Santos. He will also sit on the boards of portfolio companies.
Hwang is a Silicon Valley native and moved to Singapore in 2012 to form Facebook’s founding team in Asia.
He took on several roles during his 10-year stint at the US social media giant, including managing director for Small and Medium Businesses (SMB), which he grew to over 2 million customers and $6 billion in annual revenue. He was also director of business integrity in the Asia Pacific region where he ensured safe, trusted connections between Facebook businesses and users.
Hwang joined Stripe subsequently, he led risk partnerships and strategy for the Asia Pacific region at the SaaS startup.
Hwang is also an active angel investor, having personally invested in over 60 startups, special purpose vehicles (SPVs) and funds. He spent the last year coaching founders on go-to-market strategies and scaling their teams.
“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,” said Hwang.
“I’m excited to bring my experience in helping scale B2B startups both in Silicon Valley and Singapore, and support founders to build long-lasting companies that positively impact our world. I believe Southeast Asia’s founders are highly capable of creating solutions that can truly become global,” he added.
“We’re excited to have Andy join the team as he brings a rare combination of operational, investing, and coaching experience. His credibility—combined with his curiosity, humility, and maturity—will help strengthen the firm’s leadership as we continue to evolve and grow over our next 10 years,” said Paul Santos, managing partner, Wavemaker Partners.
Hwang’s latest appointment signals a leadership transition at Wavemaker, following the exit of Gavin Lee after more than eight years at the Southeast Asian seed-stage and deep tech VC firm. Wavemaker and Lee did not comment at the time on the reasons for his departure.
Wavemaker Partners is one of Southeast Asia’s most established and active seed investors. Since 2012, the VC firm has backed over 180 companies, the vast majority in enterprise, deeptech and sustainability. It oversees over $300 million in assets under management (AUM) across four funds, counting major institutional investors like Pavilion Capital, Temasek Holdings, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Vulcan Capital as limited partners (LPs).
The VC firm has also generated 24 exits and acquires valued at over $800 million. Some notable exits include TradeGecko’s acquisition by Intuit, and Moka’s and Coins.ph’s acquisitions by Gojek.
Its portfolio firms include well-known names such as Indonesia’s eFishery, Singapore’s Silent Eight and Growsari from the Philippines.