British International Investment

Wavemaker Impact Sub-Fund 1

AustraliaIndonesiaPhilippinesSingaporeVietnamRest of the WorldFinancial servicesFood & AgricultureInfrastructure

Wavemaker Impact is the first VC climatech venture builder in Southeast Asia, building ‘100×100’ companies that have the potential to reach more than USD 100 million in annual recurring revenue and abate more than 100 megatonnes of GHG emissions at scale.

Our investment

Description of the investment.

This investment is part of our strategy to (i) support the local entrepreneurial ecosystem in our markets in order to build new businesses which create jobs, and; (ii) provide us access to early-stage companies that have the potential to create transformational impact at scale.

Wavemaker Impact supports South-East Asia’s early-stage climate-tech venture capital ecosystem by building high-impact start-ups that will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions at scale.

We aim to catalyse the market by investing in first-mover climate venture building platform across South-East Asia to demonstrate the viability of early-stage climate-tech ventures and influence other market actors to invest in scalable climate change solutions.

Impact information

Applies to investments made from 2019 onwards. The tabs in this section define what we expect to achieve through the investment, assessing the potential impact of the investment against six dimensions of impact. You can find more details on our methodology of assessing impact here.

What?

Impact

  • Improve environmental sustainability and contributing to climate action by reducing greenhouse gas emissions (SDG 13A).

  • Build the resilience of those on low incomes and in vulnerable situations, and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to shocks and disasters (SDG 1.5).

  • Provide access to clean energy (SDG 7.1).

How?

Primary Secondary

Support South-East Asia’s early-stage climate-tech venture capital ecosystem by building high-impact start-ups that will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The fund exclusively builds and invests in ventures that have the potential to solve specific climate bottlenecks at scale while being profitable.

Increase access to solutions aiming at increasing productivity and efficiencies in key targeted sectors.

Who?

Stakeholder Geography Characteristics
Planet

Global

Emissions for agriculture, energy and industry were 2,474.28 MtCO2e in South-East Asia and are continuing to rise.
Smallholder farmers

South-East Asia: the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia

The fund plans to have approximately 50 per cent of investments in the ag-tech sector, which has a strong inclusion potential given that smallholder farmers are likely to be the main beneficiaries of these investments.

How much?

Scale Depth/Duration

Variable depending future investments

Depth: Impact is expected to be deep; reducing greenhouse emissions and building ability to adapt and be more resilient to climate-related hazards in South-East Asia are crucial solutions to climate change and its adverse effects. The impact on productivity will be deeper with low-income populations, i.e. significant improvements in terms of productivity, revenue increase, access to energy, which could have spillover effects on their quality of life.

Contribution/additionality

Contribution/additionality

  • Financial additionality: At the time of investment, our participation was to help the fund reach its target fund size.

  • Value-additionality: Given the nascency of the venture building structure in South-East Asia, we identified significant value-add from including improvement of E&S and business integrity processes, HR training and impact monitoring.

Risk

Execution Risk

The ability of the fund manager to successfully identify opportunities and hire entrepreneurs to build and scale up new ventures from ideas to profitability. This will be mitigated by the extensive experience of the team in venture building, venture capital and entrepreneurship.

Alignment Risk

Relates to the risk that the fund manager expands in sectors or geographies that are outside our areas of focus. This will be a small proportion of the fund and we will exercise our excuse rights in these cases.

Impact score

Impact score (at point of investment)

The Impact Score is a tool to help us manage our performance against our strategic impact objectives. It is designed to incentivise investments that support our productive, sustainable, and inclusive objectives. You can find out more here.

The Impact Score is published for investments made from 2022 onwards. The Impact Scores are calculated at the point of investment. We publish the Impact Scores of new investments annually, once the information has been externally assured by an independent third party.

9

Understanding our impact information (PDF)

Environmental and social information

  • Environmental and social summary

    A high-level description of the environmental and social aspects of the investment. This may include a summary of key environmental and social risks identified during environmental and social due diligence (ESDD); key elements of an environmental and social action plan (ESAP); or ways in which we plan to support the investee improve environmental and social standards, such as through their environmental and social management system (ESMS); as well as any other priority areas agreed with the investee.
  • Environmental and social risk

    A risk category rating, which indicates the level of environmental and social risk associated with an investment. For an explanation of the categorisations used, see here. We consistently provide an environmental and social risk category for all investments screened from 2023 onwards.

Environmental and social summary

We agreed an ESAP with Wavemaker focused on improving and customising the Fund’s ESMS quality (including E&S awareness and capacity), to address risks associated with early-stage (pre-seed) portfolio companies in a manner proportionate to the Fund’s venture build model.

Environmental and social risk

Medium-Low

Understanding our approach to environmental and social risk (PDF)

Reporting and Complaints Mechanism

The Reporting and Complaints Mechanism allows anyone outside BII to report alleged breaches of the business integrity or environmental and social provisions of BII’s Policy on Responsible Investing. This includes breaches made by BII, a BII investee, or a portfolio company of a fund in which BII has invested. The Reporting and Complaints Mechanism Rules are available here. Reports and complaints can be submitted by email to reportsandcomplaints@bii.co.uk or by mail. See more details on our Reporting and Complaints Mechanism here.

For any other general enquiries contact us at enquiries@bii.co.uk

  • Key facts
    First published

    When the investment was first published on the website database.
    :
    March 2024
    Last updated

    When the last quarterly update of the website database occurred.
    :
    June 2024
    Project number

    An identifier number shared by investments in the same project.
    :
    D6044
    Status

    The current status of the investment (green flag for active and red flag for exited).
    :
    Active
    Region

    The geographical region where the country is located. We currently invest in Africa, South Asia, South East Asia and the Caribbean. In 2023, BII’s investment mandate was extended allowing it to invest in regional funds linked to Ukraine, with the majority of activity expected to begin post-war. Investments outside these regions were made prior to 2012 under previous investment mandates.
    :
    Rest of the World
    Sector

    We prioritise those sectors that facilitate development and need our capital the most. Our priority sectors contribute towards many of the Sustainable Development Goals. They range from investing in the power infrastructure that will provide people with better access to electricity, to investing in financial institutions that direct capital to the individuals and businesses that need it the most.

    :
    Financial services, Food & Agriculture, Infrastructure

    We provide capital in the following ways: directly – through direct equity, direct debt, guarantees and other non-intermediated financial instruments; and indirectly – principally through investment funds.

    For direct investments and fund investments, this is the date BII committed capital to the investments. This is typically the date on which legal agreements are signed by all parties.

    For the portfolio companies of our fund investments, this is the date (either the month or the quarter) on which the fund committed capital to the portfolio company.

    For direct equity investments, this is the date at which British International Investment exited the investment.

    For debt investments, this is the date at which the final debt repayment was made.

    For funds, this is the date at which the fund was terminated.

    For underlying fund investments, this is the date at which the fund manager exited the investment.

    The total amount committed, per financial instrument, per investment, on the date BII becomes subject to a binding legal obligation to provide funding or assume a contingent liability. This information is provided in US dollars.

    For direct investments, this is the amount that BII has committed to the business or project. For fund investments, this is the amount BII has committed to the fund.

    The currency in which the investment was made.
    Investment type :
    Fund
    Start date :
    November 2023
    Amount :
    $6m
    Currency of investment :
    USD
    Fund Manager:
    Wavemaker Pacific Partners Pte. Ltd.
    Domicile

    The company or investment fund’s place of incorporation.
    :
    Singapore
    Climate finance

    Indicates whether the investment is climate finance qualified or partially climate finance qualified and the type of climate finance (adaptation, mitigation or both). We define climate finance using the multilateral development bank (MDB) and the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) Common Principles climate finance methodology. See Common Principles for Climate Mitigation Finance Tracking and Common Principles for Climate Change Adaptation Finance Tracking. We provide the climate finance qualification and type for commitments from 2020 onwards, which is when we launched our Climate Change Strategy.
    :
    Fully qualified
    Climate finance type:
    Mitigation

    Download as PDF

    Click here to read our data guidance

Investments made by this fund into companies:

Investment name Country Region Sector Start date Status
BumiBaru Pte. Ltd. Indonesia, Vietnam Rest of the World Food & Agriculture December 2023 Active
GBN Food Solutions Pte Ltd Indonesia Rest of the World Food & Agriculture March 2024 Active
Helios Solar Pte. Ltd. Philippines Rest of the World Infrastructure December 2023 Active
Metroelectro Pty Ltd Australia Rest of the World Infrastructure March 2024 Active
Octayne Green Fuel Pte Ltd Indonesia Rest of the World Infrastructure March 2024 Active
Refy Pte Ltd Singapore Rest of the World Financial services March 2024 Active
RegenX Impact Pte. Ltd. Indonesia, Vietnam Rest of the World Food & Agriculture December 2023 Active
Rize Pte. Ltd. Indonesia, Vietnam Rest of the World Food & Agriculture December 2023 Active
WasteX Pte. Ltd. Philippines Rest of the World Infrastructure December 2023 Active

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