Eric T Manlunas

Eric Manlunas was born and raised in Manila, Philippines, and moved to Los Angeles after graduating from college in 1990. He earned a Communications degree from Florida International University (1990) and an MBA from Pepperdine University (1995). He began his career in 1991 in retail/management consulting at Arthur Andersen before turning to entrepreneurship.

As a founder, Manlunas built and exited two companies: an online specialty-foods business, Interfoods (sold in July 1999), and an internet service provider, Sitestar (sold in December 2002). He then became an active angel investor, raising an $8.3M vehicle called Frontera Group, which he later formalized into Wavemaker Partners. He founded Wavemaker Partners in 2003 and scaled it into an institutional firm around 2011.

Today Manlunas runs Wavemaker Partners as a dual-headquartered platform bridging the Los Angeles ("Silicon Beach") and Singapore tech ecosystems. Over roughly two decades the firm has raised more than $900M–$950M across its funds and backed 450+ companies. Manlunas personally has made 200+ investments and counts eight companies he helped seed that went on to become unicorns — including Mindbody, Viagogo, DigitalGlobe, FloQast, DailyPay, AuditBoard, VideoAmp, and Icon Build.

Beyond investing, Manlunas has served as Chairman of the Board of Phunware and is a Trustee of the Philippine Development Foundation, which supports social and economic development initiatives in the Philippines. Wavemaker's platform has also expanded into adjacent vehicles such as Wavemaker Labs (hardware/robotics, creator of the "Flippy" kitchen robot), Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health, and Wavemaker Impact (climate).

• Invests at seed and Series A, typically writing checks of roughly $100K to $2.5M; generally does not lead rounds.
• Focuses on B2B enterprise, deep tech/hardware, fintech, SaaS, and climate/sustainability — deliberately targeting "unsexy" enterprise and deep-tech businesses in Southeast Asia when most regional capital chases consumer and fintech.
• Champions a localized, market-specific approach to Southeast Asia rather than a one-size-fits-all strategy.
• Evaluates founders on their sense of purpose and long-term thinking over hype and short-term momentum.
• Practices disciplined pacing through downturns: as he put it during the pandemic, *"We are going to continue to make new investments, but fewer of them."*