SINGAPORE, 24 February 2026 — Eezee, a Southeast Asia–based procurement platform focused on enterprise tail-end spend, has raised a US$5 million pre-Series B round, led by Korea Investment Partners Southeast Asia, with existing investors such as Kickstart Ventures and Wavemaker Ventures doubling down. The oversubscribed round also included participation from several strategic investors.

SINGAPORE, 11 February 2026 — Oneteam, a Singapore-headquartered SME acquisition platform focused on succession solutions, today announced it secured a dedicated M&A financing facility from Polaris, the alternative financing arm of GB Helios, which formed part of the financing for its second acquisition completed in September 2025.

SINGAPORE, February 5, 2026 – Wavemaker Partners today announced the promotion of Rachel Ng to Partner, People & Platform, reinforcing the firm’s commitment to nurturing leadership, organisation, and culture both internally and across its portfolio.

In her expanded role, Rachel oversees Wavemaker’s Platform functions, including People & Platform, Communications, Finance, Legal, and Portfolio Management. She is also the programme lead for Wavecrest, Wavemaker’s non-profit initiative supporting talented youths from underprivileged backgrounds.

“We believe we are in the people business. We recognise that the best founders, LPs, advisors, and employees all have choices on who they work with. We believe that attracting, nurturing and retaining top talent puts us in the best position for long-term success. Rachel’s promotion reflects both our continuing commitment to this belief and recognition of her valuable contributions to our firm and our community,” said Paul Santos, Managing Partner, Wavemaker Partners. 

Rachel joined Wavemaker in July 2019 and has since progressed through roles including Chief of Staff and Principal, People & Platform. She has supported the firm’s growth from 17 to 44 team members, establishing its people philosophy, performance and learning frameworks, and total rewards structures.

She has also played a key role in strengthening Wavemaker’s community, establishing advisor and supplier networks and organising founder-focused workshops and events. Rachel co-designed the firm’s Building Culture programme, working closely with portfolio company founders to clarify their culture, align processes and structures, and strengthen decision-making.

Commenting on her promotion, Rachel said: “I’m incredibly grateful for the trust of my colleagues, founders, and friends in our community, and excited to deepen our culture-building and leadership development initiatives at Wavemaker and across our portfolio companies.”

“Rachel has been a trusted thought partner to leaders across our firm for many years, spanning multiple funds, and she has had an outsized impact on our founders and portfolio companies,” said Andy Hwang, General Partner, Wavemaker Partners. “What sets her apart is her ability to win people’s trust and bridge different interests and perspectives to help teams find the best way forward, especially during tough times.”

About Wavemaker Partners
Wavemaker Partners is Southeast Asia’s leading venture capital firm investing in Enterprise, Deep Tech, and Sustainability startups. Since 2012, it has backed over 200 companies in the region, with over US$500 million in total committed capital across multiple funds, including Wavemaker Impact (venture build), Wavemaker Ventures (early-stage investments), and Wavemaker Growth (growth-stage). The firm has also generated over US$2 billion in enterprise value through successful exits. Its notable limited partners include Pavilion Capital, Temasek Holdings, the International Finance Corporation, Cercano Management, and DEG (investment arm of Germany’s state-owned development bank KfW). Committed to trusted partnerships and sustainability, Wavemaker Partners empowers founders solving meaningful problems with unique, scalable, and defensible solutions. Today, 92% of the firm’s active portfolio startups in Southeast Asia contribute to at least one UN Sustainable Development Goal. For more information, visit wavemakerpartners.com. 

For media inquiries, please contact:
Jum Balea, VP for Communications, Wavemaker Partners
[email protected]

Innovation thrives when startups, corporates, and governments collaborate meaningfully – but in practice, these partnerships are anything but straightforward. Different priorities, perspectives, expectations, and processes can create friction, even when all parties share the same goal. 

At the Singapore Counter: CVC Summit, industry leaders came together to share the factors behind successful and sustainable partnerships in Southeast Asia.

Here are the insights. 

1. Clarity: Know Your Why and How

For Glenda Tan, Vice President at EDB New Ventures, the CVC arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board, clarity is the foundation of successful collaboration. She breaks it down into 3 essential elements: 

• People: people are the heart of an organisation. Glenda said leaders and teams must be genuinely motivated to improve their products/services. Without that drive, even the best technology won’t succeed. 
• Process: structured experimentation and well-maintained testing processes are crucial for piloting new solutions. 
• Pilots: start small, demonstrate measurable impact, and scale gradually. 

But clarity goes beyond internal alignment. Founders must also assess whether their startups are ready for a partnership. ”If you have the runway, if you have that wherewithal, and if you believe in partnerships, you know, I think there’s really you’re set up for that. But if you’re coming to it with the wrong expectations, everyone’s going to be burned,” said Glenda.

Will Howerton, Managing Partner at In-Q-Tel, an independent, not-for-profit investment firm with national security missions in the US, UK, and Australia, echoes this: clear communication sets expectations, especially for first-time founders navigating government processes. The same process that usually takes ‘n’ days commercially can take at least 1.5-2x longer with government agencies.

“As long as you’re able to communicate clearly the key differences, especially for folks that are new to the process, that’s really kind of all you can do, right? Just be clear around expectations and whatnot, especially if things look like they’re gonna go off track,” he said.

Shiv Choudhury, Co-founder of Philippine tech B2B platform Growsari, highlighted purpose-driven partnerships. Startups must understand why a partnership exists, and corporates or governments must know why they are doing it – whether for long-term goals, short-term KPIs, or a strategic advantage.

He cited the example of the time Growsari partnered with conglomerate JG Summit in the Philippines. Growsari digitises sari-sari stores (mom-and-pops), helping transform them from simple FMCG outlets to comprehensive service hubs. JG Summit’s CVC arm, JG Digital Equity Ventures, invested in Growsari’s Series A in 2018 and Series B in 2021. “We had on our scorecard their top KPIs, and we would measure ourselves on it and go back to them,” Shiv recalled. “One of the C-suites needs to look at you and say, ‘you changed my scorecard for the year’. If that doesn’t happen, I honestly don’t think [the partnership will last],” Shiv said.

2. Internal Champions: The Unsung Heroes

Innovation partnerships need advocates inside the organisation – people who understand the solution, have influence, and are committed to making it work. 

“Innovation mandates are great, but having an internal champion with budget and aligned end-users that are really committed to testing out new technology is crucial,” Will said. “These are often people that have been sort of burned by legacy approaches or they’re just not getting the mission outcomes that they need from existing tools.”

Champions alone aren’t enough. Will said organisational mindset must also shift to support new technology and allow teams to move away from legacy processes. 

Glenda noted that champions don’t always have to be senior executives but they definitely need the backing of management. “Because you need executive sponsorship to clear the path. You need the sponsor to bring in the right people. So it’s going to eventually be a bit of a team play. It’s collaboration within a corporate, not just external to the corporate.”

3. Trust and Credibility: Building Bridges

Startups need credibility to break into enterprises; corporates need assurance that startups can deliver.

Ben Stein, CEO of Staple AI, illustrated this: early on, Staple targeted SMEs but pivoted to enterprise clients. Based in Singapore, Staple leverages AI for data processing, document intelligence, and workflow automation, primarily catering to B2B customers that include financial institutions, government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies.

Lack of credibility was a barrier for Staple in landing clients until they joined SAP.iO programme. It connected them with SAP’s ecosystem of AI-powered startup solutions and acted like a ‘trust multiplier,’ giving Staple immediate validation, access to SAP’s customers, and more growth. “Since then, I think our business has been kind of 70-80% driven by partnership-led growth… Increasingly, that is probably the most viable channel for startups, particularly enterprise startups today,” said Ben.

4. Structural Support & Ecosystem Programmes 

Government programmes, corporate venture launchpads, and ecosystem initiatives play a crucial role in enabling collaboration.

Singapore, for instance, has built a comprehensive innovation ecosystem with initiatives such as:

• RIE agenda: allocating 1% of GDP to research, innovation, and enterprise (up to S$28 billion from 2021-2025; S$37 billion for 2026-2030).
• Global Innovation Alliance (GIA), which helps startups scale overseas. 
• EDB’s Corporate Venture Launchpad, which facilitates corporate-startup partnerships with commercial outcomes.

Ben said GIA accelerated Staple’s entry into markets like China, Australia, and the UK. Staple also benefitted from working with Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which helped to add credibility, opened doors to enterprise customer, and enabled POCs (proof of concepts) that would otherwise be off-limits to Staple. 

Ben noted that government thought leadership in AI and data governance also helps signal compliance trends to customers: “it helps us to build a solution that will address those [regulatory] needs in the future.”

Glenda highlighted how EDB’s Corporate Venture Launchpad helps corporates expand in Southeast Asia. Japan’s Tokio Marine’s subsidiary ID&E, for example, leveraged the programme to pilot predictive road maintenance with startups in Singapore – a win-win for both corporates and the local innovation ecosystem.

5. Local Context & Deep Relationship Building

Southeast Asia is a diverse and complex region. Each country has its own regulations, market behaviours, and key players. Navigating this environment often requires deep relationships with family-owned conglomerates, which dominate the region’s economy characteristics.

Shiv emphasised the importance of building trust, sharing Growsari’s experience partnering with conglomerates. “You have to go deep with one set of partners and genuinely get them to believe in your vision. And when that happens [things become] strong and magical.”

In family-owned conglomerates, Shiv said major decisions are made by the key owners, so winning their support is crucial. It’s also important to maintain regular engagement with them, so it doesn’t feel like the startups are simply taking their money and support, and then walking away.

Strategic partnerships with conglomerates also provide access to local networks that help with navigating the different regulations across countries. “Governing bodies are a tougher one, especially in financial services. You almost need to build local networks to build those relationships,” Shiv said.

This article is part of a series of coverage from Singapore Counter: CVC Summit co-hosted by Wavemaker Partners, Counterpart Ventures, and R3D3, on 13 November 2025 at Tanjong Beach Club, Singapore. It was an invite-only gathering that brought together Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) leaders from across Asia, fostering meaningful conversations among the region’s top CVCs, sharing emerging trends, and exploring how deeper corporate-startup collaboration can strengthen Southeast Asia industries.

If you’re a corporate interested in learning about disruptive technologies coming from Southeast Asia, please reach out to us via the Wavemaker Corporate Partnerships Programme Page or contact [email protected]. 

 Want more insights from the CVC Summit? Check out these articles:

• Corporates Push for Smarter Innovation; IBM Shares Lessons from its Strategy
• AI Adoption No Longer Optional for Corporates, Says OpenAI Exec

SINGAPORE – While artificial intelligence continues to transform businesses globally, a widening divide is emerging between how startups and large corporates are adopting the technology, even as many corporates ramp up investment through venture and innovation partnerships. Speaking at the Singapore Counter: CVC Summit, Deborah Im, Head of Legal, APAC at OpenAI, said the debate over whether corporates adopt AI “has passed,” stressing that implementation is now a business necessity rather than a choice. 

“I hope that everyone agrees that time has passed. Everyone should be adopting AI, in my opinion,” said Deborah during a fireside chat with Andy Hwang, General Partner of Wavemaker Partners, on How AI Is Transforming the Corporate and Startup Landscape.

Startups as “AI-Native” Companies

Deborah noted that startups have a significant advantage in adopting new technologies largely because they can grow as “AI-native” organisations. Without legacy systems, entrenched workflows, or internal concerns around job displacement, startups can embed AI into their products and operations from day one.

“There are no company equities they’re thinking about. There are no jobs being replaced per se because they’re starting with AI as the base,” said Deborah.

Data backs this trend. In a report by Fortune, Tanuja Randery, AWS Managing Director for EMEA, said that as startups outpace corporates in AI adoption, they are driving what she describes as a “two-tier” AI economy.” An AWS survey of European companies also found that while startups are leveraging AI not just to boost efficiency but also to build entirely new products and business models, only 3% of large enterprises have integrated AI into their core business in a comparable way. Most corporates remain focused on early-stage productivity experimentation rather than full-scale transformation. 

Additional research echoes this divide. McKinsey’s The State of AI in 2025 report found that although 88% of organisations now use AI in at least one business function, only a minority have successfully scaled these initiatives across the enterprise.

Corporate Adoption Slowed by Structural & Cultural Barriers

Despite widespread recognition of AI’s potential, corporates often move cautiously due to their scale, compliance obligations, and complex internal structures. Deborah highlighted that these layers often create internal resistance. 

“If you are a big corporate, there are challenges because there are equities within the company that are going to feel threatened by the use of AI,” she said. “If you open it up to debate across different leaders or different teams, you’re going to get pushback, which is why I think that the top leadership of the company just has to make the decision and push it down.” 

Deborah argued that companies should frame AI as a tool to enhance efficiency rather than replace employees. Whether in coding, customer service, or operational workflows, AI can take over manual, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks, enabling employees to focus on strategic and higher-value responsibilities. 

She added that leaders should actively encourage employees to use AI in their daily work, supported by clear guidance on acceptable use and data handling. 

“That starts with ‘AI-fy’ing yourself to be more efficient and just be better at your job and make that the norm. That’s just like a behaviour, a cultural mindset that needs to shift,” she said. 

That said, many corporates are actively moving beyond internal constraints by tapping innovation ecosystems. Also at the Singapore Counter: CVC Summit, industry leaders highlighted how corporate venture capital (CVC) has become a key strategy for maintaining proximity to cutting-edge technologies, including AI. According to BCG’s 2023 “Most Innovative Companies” report, 79% of executives now rank innovation as a top 3 priority, with two-thirds of respondents planning to increase their investment. While broader CVC activity in Asia-Pacific has slowed, AI remains a standout growth area for corporates. This reflects growing recognition that while internal transformation may be slow, external partnerships offer a pathway for corporates to access emerging AI capabilities, and stay competitive and relevant.

Rise of ‘Shadow AI’

But even as AI becomes more prevalent, cultural stigma persists in most organisations, said Deborah. She warned that restricting AI use can backfire. Employees who lack approved enterprise tools are turning to unmonitored “shadow AI” which heightens the risk of data leakage and compliance breaches. 

Shadow AI refers to usage of AI tools without formal oversight or approval from their company’s IT department. As employees feed potentially sensitive data into the AI, it is stored in external systems and potentially used to train AI models.

2025 Komprise IT Survey: AI, Data & Enterprise Risk found that 90% of IT leaders are worried about shadow AI, with 13% reporting actual financial or reputational damage as a result.

Menlo Security’s 2025 Report: How AI is Shaping the Modern Workspace revealed a 68% surge in the use of unapproved generative AI tools in the workplace, with 57% of employees admitting they had entered sensitive company data into free online AI systems.

“If you’re not enabling and paying for your employees to be using an AI tool, I’m pretty sure they’re using a shadow AI tool. I’m sure they’re using it just like their personal AI, and they’re probably putting some of your data at risk. So it’s better for corporates to adopt AI for all of their employees and then encourage them to use it in a safe way, in terms of data security,” said Deborah.

She emphasised that robust internal AI guidelines – covering acceptable use, data protection, and security protocols – are essential to preventing such risks. 

She concluded that regardless of the business size, the focus should now shift from debating AI adoption to implementing it responsibly. For startups, that means scaling what already works; for corporates, it means aligning internal culture, operational tools, and external innovation strategies. Those that succeed will not only unlock productivity gains but also position themselves to compete in an economy where AI is no longer a differentiator but the baseline for staying competitive.

This article is part of a series of coverage from Singapore Counter: CVC Summit co-hosted by Wavemaker Partners, Counterpart Ventures, and R3D3, on 13 November 2025 at Tanjong Beach Club, Singapore. It was an invite-only gathering that brought together Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) leaders from across Asia, fostering meaningful conversations among the region’s top CVCs, sharing emerging trends, and exploring how deeper corporate-startup collaboration can strengthen Southeast Asia industries.

If you’re a corporate interested in learning about disruptive technologies coming from Southeast Asia, please reach out to us via the Wavemaker Corporate Partnerships Programme Page or contact [email protected]. 

Want more insights from the CVC Summit? Check out:

• Corporates Push for Smarter Innovation; IBM Shares Lessons from its Strategy
• What It Takes to Build Winning Startup-Corporate Partnerships