A window into progress: A look inside the world's day zero investor

Three billion. That’s how many gamers there are globally who spend US$200bn a year on consoles and in-app purchases such as NFTs. The category is larger than movies and music combined demonstrating we are starting to spend more of our lives in virtual worlds. When we started to reflect on the days when millions of consumers played Mario Kart, Farmville and Club Penguin, we became captivated by how these planted the seed for the next generation of gaming platforms as we enter the new creator economy where all of us may become creators in the future and compensated based on our contributions towards platforms and communities. The next generation of emerging gaming platforms are putting the power in the hands of the players instead of confining them to one central authority.

It is always great to see more and more people willing to address mental health issues. Yet, as the conversation around mental health slowly expands, it also exposes the reality of crumbling support structures, lowered resilience levels, and the multiple failing points across our public and private healthcare systems. This is disheartening. The process of accepting that one needs help is difficult enough itself, the other steps needed in this journey should not add to the difficulty.

The following is a transcript of an interview between the co-founders of Faba and Antler. It has been slightly edited for clarity and length.

Teo Ortega is a contrarian builder who is not afraid of deviating from what is considered common knowledge. He likes to take things apart and understand how they work and put them back together in a new way as a way to understand their fundamentals — a form of reverse engineering if you will.

Global early-stage VC Antler kicked off Q2 2022 in Berlin with their Portfolio Reveal Day on April 7th. As part of the second Berlin cohort, 8 teams took to the stage to showcase their innovation. The founders behind these startups work on addressing big challenges across Medtech🏥, Mental Health/Psychedelics🍄, HR Tech👩‍💼, Cleantech 🌊, Clean Energy⚡, Cybersecurity🔐 and in the Creator Economy🖼.

The power structures of the creator economy are rapidly changing - creators are now in the driver’s seat, being offered the opportunity to have greater individuality than ever before through Web3 creator platforms.

When we think of content creators, examples include YouTubers and TikTokers creating content for their fans. This often results in limited revenue opportunities such as merchandise, subscriptions, ad revenue or tipping which, in practice, is only sustainable for the top 1% of creators who have amassed large followings. Today, creator platforms are taking too much income away from the actual creator -  they do not provide options for creators to be discovered through their algorithms and few provide direct ownership where all stakeholders have a financial upside based on their contributions. This is, we believe, the next iteration for the category - a substantial shift since we published our first edition of the creator economy report in 2021. Creators are no longer just the product - they are the new economies.

Antler Netherlands’ fifth cohort has kicked off in Amsterdam. Here’s more about who they are and what you need to know about this group of exceptional people.

This article is part of an Antler Berlin content series called ‘Call for Founders’. In this series, we will outline several exciting spaces in the startup and VC ecosystem that we see as opportunities ripe for venture creation. For this article we focus on marketplaces. These opportunities may emerge from an industry need, a trend, or indeed a prediction that we have had. If you like this series and you, or someone you know, is ready to build their own startup, apply to Antler.

An interview with Austin Chaird, Chief product and technology officer at Alpha Impact

In the past years, podcast listening has become more popular than ever, but with so many out there it can be difficult to know what will be the best podcast for you as an entrepreneur and startup founder.

We have created a list of over 30 podcasts to inspire your listening habits curated by our network - from founders building their business with Antler to our team and advisors. No matter whether you are a first time founder or have done it all before, this list is guaranteed to offer something new.

Looking for even more practical resources for founders? Recently, we also shared our book recommendations for entrepreneurs selected by the Antler founders, advisors, and our team. Check them out!

Theory of Next is a series by Antler India that decodes and contextualizes the spaces and ideas of the future. Using first-principles approach, it provides a window into the process by which a venture capital firm arrives at a particular sectoral thesis.

Football scouts search all corners of the world to find exceptionally talented individuals. They look for skill, vision, mental strength, and character, which you could argue are similar to what VCs look for in entrepreneurs.

Believing in our unlimited potential is one of the most powerful mindsets that one can possess to own our impact and ultimately win in life. It all begins with reframing limits and scarcity as opportunities for growth. At Antler, we invest in people by enlarging their capacity to not just be competent founders but also rise up as great leaders. In honour of International Women’s Day, we asked female founders at Antler and Antler team members how they overcame challenges to live out their true potential.

We hope you’ll find these stories as inspiring as we do!

The past two years in crypto have been absolutely astounding. From “DeFi summer” (now $250bn+ of total value locked) to “NFT craze” ($3.4bn monthly GMV on Opensea alone in August 2021) to Solana’s epic rise and various memecoin’s ultimate downfalls – the sheer pace of adoption and activity across the crypto ecosystem has been an incredible force.

Every venture fund in the world is currently deepening or developing a crypto thesis. Talent from traditional industries is pouring into crypto. And we now have an overarching, epochal narrative to define the movement: web3.

Amongst all the areas to focus on, I have chosen to write about Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). The reason for this is as follows:

• Incentive Innovation Rules All. Bitcoin provided a practical solution to the Byzantine Generals Problem by introducing an incentive innovation. In fact, much of crypto is about remixing existing technology with new incentives to create powerful new paradigms. DAOs are the natural frontier of incentive design in web3.
  
• Capital Power. The DeFi ecosystem, with $250bn total value locked (TVL), is the current “super-app” of web3. While only ~$10bn of DeFi TVL (~4%) is currently held in DAOs, this number will likely increase exponentially as more and more DeFi protocols progressively decentralize governance. More money, more power – DeFi Treasury DAOs have the potential for massively influencing web3 in 2022 and beyond as capital power grows.
  
• Web3 Promise. If the promise of web3 (versus web2) is to reduce centralized power in private, opaque corporate structures, then functional, community-led DAOs are a key prerequisite for the web3 promise to be fulfilled.

Businesses need financial help — badly. That’s the core of what Rajith Shaji and I were trying to address when we founded our expense management platform — Volopay — in 2019. What started with the intent to help Singaporean businesses manage their money better, has now turned into a service scaled across the APAC region.

Love is in the air! Yup, it’s that time of the year again. While some impatiently await its arrival because of all the fun things they have planned out, it is a day of confrontation with involuntary romantic loneliness for others. Valentine’s Day 2022 is here, which we took as the occasion to find five startups that will help you celebrate Valentine’s Day, with or without a partner.

Several years ago, one afternoon in Hanoi city center, I sat on the terrace in a cafe, watching people pass by with their various activities. A city bus passed, and I want to try it on but I couldn’t understand all the information on the bus. It was written in the Vietnamese alphabet. I finished my coffee quickly and ordered a taxi through a costly ride-hailing app as I had no other choice because I didn’t want to gamble by renting a motorbike there.

Theory of Next is a series by Antler India that decodes and contextualizes the spaces and ideas of the future. Using first-principles approach, it provides a window into the process by which a venture capital firm arrives at a particular sectoral thesis.

Global early-stage VC Antler has kicked off 2022 by welcoming 90 Australian founders into its latest cohort to build the defining companies of tomorrow. With ambitions extending across SaaS, FinTech, AgTech, HealthTech and GreenTech, here’s what you need to know about this mix of aspiring and experienced entrepreneurs.

With their eyes set on solving some of the world’s biggest challenges by building new category-defining companies, these ambitious individuals are embarking on their founder journey with Antler Australia to secure Pre-Seed investment.

Tune in to our Web3 Insights Call to learn about the new internet: Web3!

Rent hasn’t changed for several decades. In 2019, 36% of the 122.8 million households in the United States were renting their homes which is more than at any point in the past 50 years. The median price of a home is up nearly 70% in the last decade while median income has grown less than 30% in the same period. Homeownership and building wealth are increasingly out of reach for Americans. When homeownership isn’t feasible, more people rent, and rent prices skyrocket as they have done for the past 20 years. The multifamily housing industry is known for being slow to adopt new technology. However, increasing competition and the COVID-19 pandemic paired with generational shifts in apartment ownership to a younger more tech-savvy group has created many opportunities for technology companies to enter the multi-family housing market.

The year of 2021 had been the year that Web3 gained mainstream popularity, transitioning from obscure, niche Discord communities, selling and buying NFTs, to Facebook rebranding to Meta, and your uncle asking why anyone would pay $300k for a digital image of a monkey.

First appeared in The Economic Times. Head here for the story.

The future of mobility is at a critical point of inflection. Every time oil prices spike or climate change is debated and discussed, Electric Vehicles (EVs) are inevitably mentioned as a part of the solution. Yet, despite several new Indian companies entering various parts of the EV value chain, significant capital infused in the space, and large-scale execution efforts, EVs are not mainstream yet. It is 2021 and it seems we have hit the inflection point for EVs to take off, finally.

Theory of Next is a series by Antler India that decodes and contextualises the spaces and ideas of the future. Using first-principles approach, it provides a window into the process by which a venture capital firm arrives at a particular sectoral thesis. In this episode, Nitin Sharma (Partner, Antler India) and Vineet Agarwal (Investment Manager, Antler India) brainstorm and lay out our thesis on the electric vehicles landscape in India.

Looking for book recommendations for entrepreneurs beyond Zero to One, The Lean Startup, and The Hard Thing About Hard Things? We curated a list of 35 books to inspire your reading list for 2022 curated by our network—from founders building their business with Antler to our team and advisors.

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We created this list to help all founders—from first-timers looking for an informative and relevant read to ones who have seen it all but are curious to learn more. Expand your reading list even further by checking out our list of books every founder should read in 2023.

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Antler Quarterly. This report explores the impact, risk, sustainability, and opportunity within the global VC industry.

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A longread about the road to founding a company and finding the ultimate problem to work on, by Jeffrey Duyvesteijn, co-founder and CEO of For Youth.

A conversation with Gina Xydias Charmanta, MBA, entrepreneur, and former consultant.

In this article, we explore how consumers’ attention spans are shifting, examine TikTok as a case study and explore the trends we are seeing in this space.

We spoke with Dr Tommy Mermelshtayn about Zip's growth to date and what it takes to transition from startup to scaleup

TradeBay is about to revolutionize the fruit trade industry by offering a Global fruit trading platform. Here is why the Stockholm portfolio company, led by CEO Filippa Jedeur-Palmgren, enables new market opportunities and why this Global multi-billion dollar industry is ripe for VC investment.

A conversation with Rafael Alain Rolli, bioengineer and entrepreneur.

A conversation with Annika (Kreil) Breu, founder of OH MY! Fantasy and former Bain Consultant.

We are delighted to announce that we are expanding our investment activity. Our primary focus remains to invest at the pre-seed stage, but we now also have the ability to offer our portfolio companies follow-on capital as they grow and scale, up to Series C.

At Antler, we believe exceptional people are the key to building defining companies. But what makes a person exceptional, and how do personal characteristics or experiences increase the chances of building a successful tech company? Through this Unicorn founder mapping series, we aim to identify patterns that led up to founding a Unicorn. This month, we explore Brazil, taking a look at the local Unicorn founders, which higher institutions they went to, how many years of work experience they had before launching their ventures, and more.

A conversation with Mikhail (Misha) Bragin, founder of WireTrustee.

Goldman Sachs veteran Sheila Patel joins the board of Antler. With three decades of experience in financial asset management, Patel has become a Global leader in the asset management industry.

As the world screeched to a standstill in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, few sectors were hit as hard as the travel industry. Globally, international arrivals dropped to 381 million in 2020, down from 1.461 billion in 2019 — a 74% decline. According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the crisis put between 100 and 120 million direct tourism jobs at risk. As lockdowns fell into place worldwide, investors and entrepreneurs in the TravelTech sector switched to “survival mode”.

Yet in the midst of it all, Airalo persisted.

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Rajith has the natural gift of making people feel at ease. But we’re not going to lie; this conversation was different. To make it happen, we stretched over three continents: North America, Europe, and Asia. While it was late at night in Vancouver, it was early morning in Rotterdam and noon in Singapore. However, Rajith injected the conversation with good vibes from the first second, making us feel awake and inspired. It was the perfect way to start and end our day!

What's the secret to building and scaling a successful tech company? According to some of the top product-building experts in Southeast Asia, it's all about building a strong product culture from Day One. Setting strong product foundations looks different for companies at different stages, from seed to Series C and beyond, and must evolve based on the unique cultural environment in which you are building. Find out how businesses leaders from tech companies like Gojek, Lazada and more built successful internal product cultures.

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At some point, most data scientists or developers have built something that they think has startup potential or dreamed of launching their own successful product. Yet, many developers end up sticking with their jobs.

So, what makes someone take the leap and chase the startup dream? We asked three developers-turned-founders what prompted them to leave their jobs and start a company. From lacking a sense of purpose to feeling uninspired, stifled, or unappreciated, learn what motivated these successful founders to leave their full-time jobs to start a business.

At Antler, we believe exceptional people are the key to building defining companies. But what makes a person exceptional, and how do personal characteristics or experiences increase the chances of building a successful tech company? Last month, we took a systematic look at the most exceptional founders of the 21st century in the DACH region to identify patterns that led up to founding a Unicorn. This month, we are doing the same across the African continent. Our findings reveal who Africa’s Unicorn, Soonicorn, and growth-stage startup founders are, which higher institutions they went to, how many years of work experience they had before launching their ventures, and more. Additionally, we have taken a closer look at the future state of the local ecosystem and put together data-driven predictions to provide more insight and understanding into the African startup ecosystem and the opportunities that lie ahead.

In Episode 22, we speak to Josh Tetrick, founder of Eat Just Inc., a San Francisco-based FoodTech startup that is radically reimagining the way we consume meat globally. Eat Just is best known for its mung bean-based egg substitute called "Just Egg" and its “lab-grown” cultured chicken. In December 2020, Singapore became the first country in the world to grant approval of the sale of cultured chicken. Eat Just was founded in 2011, and the company has raised over US$650 million and had last been valued at US$1.2 billion.

In this episode, Josh talks about how he came to focus on the problem with food, solving massive challenges in the food industry and building a new universe of tools to supply food in a more ethical way. He discusses the hurdles to widespread adoption of plant-based meats, talks about the mindset shift towards FoodTech innovation that will occur in the next decade, and shares advice for aspiring founders looking to solve real problems in our society.

To better understand the complexities of mental health for founders, Antler teamed up with Female Founders, the leading European Eco-System for Entrepreneurial Women, to discuss mental exhaustion and how to prevent it as part of a fireside chat.

Alpha Impact is a social media network built to give a crypto trader with $25 the same tools as one with 25 BTC.

From inventive ways to leverage your network, to forming strategic partnerships, and more.

Thinking about leaving corporate life behind? Looking for more freedom, control, and financial independence? Perhaps being a consultant has shown you that the business world isn't half as complicated as you thought, and you've played around with the thought of starting your own company. However, you're unsure if you're cut out for the startup journey.

We asked four consultant-turned-entrepreneurs about the biggest lessons they learned along the way. From what these founders have discovered about themselves since becoming an entrepreneur, to how they've used their background in consulting to build successful tech startups in less than a year, here's what they had to say.

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Have you ever wondered who the most successful entrepreneurs are? What career paths they pursued, what network they tapped into, and whether these stereotypical rules still apply today if you want to build the next billion-dollar business?

Taking a systematic look at the most exceptional founders of the 21st century in the DACH region, we have observed similar patterns that led up to founding a unicorn.

This new quarterly series leverages the insights of Antler’s Global leadership team to uncover real impact, explore sustainable measures, and identify future opportunities across the sector for investors and entrepreneurs.

The founders series takes a deep dive into the journey of Antler portfolio  company founders and sheds light on the space they are building in. This week, we spoke to Zabrina Chew, Co-Founder and CEO of Soda. Soda is a social discovery platform to help millennial professionals find and engage with relevant and trusted communities around them easily. Soda is building the  future of discovery, co-creation, and collaboration, bringing its community together through streamlined content and small, intimate gatherings.

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