Wavemaker Partners

Wavemaker operates two legally separate venture funds under one brand — one in Southeast Asia, led by Paul Santos in Singapore, and one in the United States, led by Eric Manlunas in Los Angeles. Each fund has its own LPs, investment committees, and portfolio. The two teams share the Wavemaker brand, collaborate on due diligence, and can co-invest or refer deals across geographies, but the pools of capital are not commingled. The structure gives Southeast Asian portfolio companies access to US market intelligence and networks, while the US fund gains visibility into Asian enterprise adoption patterns.

Wavemaker invests primarily at the pre-seed and seed stages, with some Series A follow-on capital. The firm typically writes first checks ranging from $500,000 to $2 million, targeting B2B and deep-tech founders building defensible technology businesses. It also deploys alternative venture models — including revenue-based financing and structured equity — when standard equity terms do not fit a company's capital profile. The firm's Sweet Spot is being the first institutional investor in a founding team with domain expertise and commercial traction.

Paul Santos, the Singapore-based Managing Partner, runs the Southeast Asia fund. He is the final decision-maker on investments and leads a team that includes partners and principals with operating backgrounds across Southeast Asian markets. Santos relocated to Singapore in 2011 and launched the fund the following year; his operating experience and Draper Venture Network affiliation gave the earliest fund credibility with LPs and founders. The Los Angeles-based US fund is run separately by Eric Manlunas.

Wavemaker Partners is a venture capital firm, not a family office. It manages LP capital raised from institutional investors, development finance institutions, and high-net-worth individuals. The firm does not deploy a single-family's wealth. Its early association with the Draper Venture Network — a federation of independent VC funds — and its bi-coastal structure sometimes create confusion, but Wavemaker is squarely a traditional venture fund manager with a distinctive geographic footprint.

Wavemaker relies heavily on founder networks, regional accelerators, and co-investor referrals. Santos's decade-plus presence in Singapore and the firm's position as one of the most active early-stage investors by deal count in the region give it broad inbound flow. The firm also uses its Draper Network ties and US office to surface companies that have cross-border potential. Unlike some regional VCs that depend on government-linked incubator pipelines, Wavemaker's sourcing skews toward operator-led relationships and university spinouts.

Wavemaker's Southeast Asia fund explicitly avoids consumer internet, gaming, and B2C marketplaces — sectors that dominated the region's first venture wave in the 2010s. The firm focuses on B2B, enterprise software, deep tech, and sustainability. It also avoids drug-discovery biotech and capital-intensive hardware that lacks a clear software or recurring-revenue model, though its industrial tech and robotics investments sometimes involve physical products.

Wavemaker was an early member of the Draper Venture Network (DVN), a global alliance of independent VC firms that share deal flow, best practices, and the Draper brand legacy. As of 2026, the US fund maintains closer ties to the network, but the Southeast Asia fund benefits from the affiliation through LP introductions and cross-border co-investments. The network functions as a loose federation — it is not a fund-of-funds and does not control investment decisions at member firms.