(image: WaveMaker Managing Partner Paul Santos (left) with legendary investor Tim Draper)

Venture capital firm WaveMaker Partners announced that it is in the process of finalising its new US$50 million for Southeast Asia.

The new fund will target 80 early stage startups with strong focus on B2B sector, with specific focus in the Indonesian market.

WaveMaker Partners is the Southeast Asia representative of legendary investor Tim Draper’s Draper Venture Network (DVN), and the new fund was announced together with his visit to Jakarta, where he announced his shifting focus from China to Indonesia.

“There are so many things going for Indonesia with its fast GDP growth fuelled by a large, young, digitally-savvy population, an increasingly skilled workforce and burgeoning middle class. It’s a great environment to scale startups,” Draper said in a press statement.

“I’m here to meet founders and investors, learn more about the country and share some of the lessons I’ve learned on scaling startups. I’d love to find more deals to invest in together with WaveMaker and leverage DVN to help them grow,” he added.

During the visit, Draper reportedly had visited Indonesian ride-hailing unicorn Go-Jek and other companies in WaveMaker Partners portfolio.

The venture capital firm has at least 10 portfolio companies with Indonesia as its core target market.

WaveMaker Partners was established in 2003, with offices in Los Angeles and Singapore.

The fund is the fifth the company has launched so far, and it marks the second the venture capital firm set up for the region, where it has exited five companies in the past two years.

Some of its most notable exits are of Pie (which was Google’s first acquisition in Southeast Asia), Luxola (which was acquired by LVMH), and ArtofClick (which was acquired by Xurpas).