Antler goes beyond traditional VC investing—here's how

Whether it’s pre-idea, pre-team, or pre-seed, Antler backs the best founders from the very beginning. 

Above all, we don’t launch and leave. From the moment we invest initial pre-seed capital, we function as an extension of our founders’ teams to maximize their success for the entire life cycle of the company. 

From day zero we provide talent, deep business model validation, a global platform for scaling, and capital—with a personal passion that goes beyond traditional investing. And as our portfolio companies grow, we are a long-term capital partner who provides follow-on funding or access to tier-one VC firms in subsequent fundraising rounds. 

‍Capital support to scale your business—including initial funding in a matter of weeks

Upon joining one of our residencies in 27 locations, founders may receive a basic stipend designed to cover basic living costs. This is to ensure they can commit full-time and focus their energy and effort into building a great company.

As the culminating point of the Antler residency (which you can read more about here), founders may have an opportunity to pitch to Antler’s Investment Committee for pre-seed capital.

While founders are focused on building their startup throughout the residency, Antler uses this time to conduct due diligence on how the founders operate, the pace of their progress, and the traction they are making. This, along with the founders' pitch, contributes to Antler forming a view on whether a founder and their company is backable.

If successful at the Investment Committee, founders will receive funding from Antler for an equity stake. While each location’s check size and stake may vary, we share our full term sheet when accepting a founder into our residency to be transparent about terms up front.

Financial backing beyond day zero

Beyond writing the first check, we offer founders an unmatched capital pathway to global success from day zero.

In addition to pre-seed capital, local Antler funds also make follow-on investments in portfolio companies up to and beyond Series C, both via the local fund itself, as well as our global emerging growth fund.

‍Antler Elevate is ​​a US$285 million emerging growth fund that invests scale-up capital from Series A onwards in breakout companies from within and outside of Antler’s global portfolio.

This fund has already invested more than $70 million in more than 30-plus companies, including: 

• Airalo, the world’s first and largest eSim marketplace.
• Earlytrade, a liquidity marketplace for the construction sector.
• Two, a purchase financing solution for B2B e-commerce.

View Antler Elevate's publicly-announced portfolio companies.

‍Access to a global network of investors

Antler portfolio companies that are raising capital get access to our global network of investors. 

Through direct introductions and fundraising support, we have helped Antler founders raise more than $400 million from VCs, angel investors, our LPs, and our Operator Network—accounting for approximately two-thirds of all the funding raised by our portfolio. 

In addition, since our founding we have hosted 50-plus investor days around the world, showcasing our founders to the best and most active investors in their ecosystem. Through our investor days, our founders have gotten exposure to more than 5,000 active investors to date.

A long-term partnership with the founders we back

We are committed to being a long-term partner to the remarkable founders we back—providing advice, introductions, resources, additional funding, and access to tier-one VC firms in subsequent fundraising rounds.

Unlike traditional venture capital firms, accelerators, or incubators our goal is to support the founders and the companies we invest in from pre-seed to series C, and beyond. We also provide support for founders who decide not to launch their company or do not receive an investment from Antler. We invite founders to join our global talent network, offer guidance on their next step, and connect them with the best opportunities aligned with their personal objectives.

Antler founders have a home for life—no matter what direction their business or career takes.

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The most driven founders are joining Antler—the world's day zero investor—to solve important problems. Apply to one of our residencies in 27 cities around the world.