GET FUNDED BY Australia’s global early-stage VC

Antler is the investor backing the world's most driven founders, from day zero to greatness. We invest from day zero and keep backing our companies for their whole journey. We provide talent and co-founder matching support, deep business model validation, initial capital, a global platform for scaling, and follow-on funding.

Who should apply?

Pre-idea, pre-team, or Pre-Seed, we want to hear from you. Whether you're an individual looking for a co-founder to launch your next startup or an existing team looking for your first VC cheque.

We look for people with relevant skills to build early-stage businesses - think serial founders, commercial leaders, technical builders, and domain experts - combined with people who demonstrate “Founder DNA”: the grit, drive and tenacity to succeed at all costs.

Individuals

Looking for a co-founder

You must be able to attend our full-time 11-week Residency in person in either Sydney or Melbourne. You must also have full working rights in Australia to be eligible. If this timing doesn’t work for you, we hold three intakes a year.

If you're still wondering if this is right for you, come along to one of our upcoming AMA sessions which explore the benefits of partnering with a VC, how to build a VC-backed business, insights from former CTOs who have transitioned to entrepreneurship and the value of building with a co-founder.

Sign up for an upcoming AMA here

Teams

Already have the dream team?

Do you already have a team and are ready to start building. Joining Antler gives you the opportunity to build alongside like-minded, ambitious founders.

Build long-lasting relationships, gain access to coaching, network resources, investor introductions, and valuable support—regardless of your idea’s stage

Sign up for an upcoming AMA here

What should I expect from Antler?

Antler exists to increase our founders’ speed and success rate in solving important problems. Here’s how we do that:

01

Formation and validation phase

You will be among ~70 other founders split across Sydney and Melbourne. These founders have been selected from ~1,500 applications, meaning you will be surrounded by some of the most exceptional founders in Australia. Accepted founders may be eligible for a stipend to cover cost of living expenses. The first six weeks of the Residency is a full-time, in-person commitment consisting of masterclasses, design sprints and social events, all designed to help you find your co-founder(s) and validate your ideas. 

Due diligence phase

Once teams are formed, over the next five weeks founders work on a rapid trajectory to build an MVP, test the market and secure first customers. They receive a dedicated coach to provide direction and guidance. Coaches are ex-founders who have the lived experience of starting and scaling businesses or have deep functional expertise. This phase culminates with an opportunity to pitch our Investment Committee for Pre-Seed funding. If you receive funding, we will write you a check for $225,000 for a 12% equity stake. At this point, Antler takes a $68,000 program fee. If you don't receive funding, we will sit down and tell you exactly why—100% transparency.

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Join the Antler portfolio

As an extension of our founders’ teams, we don’t launch and leave. We are here to maximise a founder’s success for the entire life cycle of the company. So, 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. You also join one of the world’s fastest-growing communities of founders, made up of more than 8,000+ founders across six continents with whom you can learn from and connect with.

Scale fast, backed by our global network

We exist to increase our founders’ speed and success rate in solving important problems. They scale faster—from winning their first 100 customers and marketing a new product to raising their next round of funding—with the backing of 8,000+ fellow Antler founders across six continents. They learn from the best in the business through our advisor network of 600 leading operators, our sector-focused communities, and our monthly socials across our locations. And they are powered by curated people and resources for hiring, going to market, and fundraising, along with perks from leading tech providers. Antler founders have a home for life—no matter what direction their business or career takes.

Unmatched capital pathway for global success

Since 2019, Antler in Australia has worked and invested in hundreds of early-stage startups working to build a better future.

120+

Portfolio companies

80%

Receive external funding within a year of Antler's investment

$70M

Raised in third-party capital by Antler's portfolio in Australia

$10M+

Valuation for 17 Australia portfolio companies

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Antler-funded founders go on to raise capital from other leading VCs

Founder testimonials

Don't just take it from us. Hear from phenomenal people who joined Antler in Australia to launch their company.

Nick Glynn

QuickaPay

Antler enabled me to step up from leading a single function in a company, product engineering, to being a co-founder.

Skye Theodorou

upcover

The opportunity to work with people who are experts in so many fields and industries, while you're in a structured program where you can get support on a range of challenges that startups face, it’s a win.

Charbel Ayoub

Pathzero

The last two years launching and scaling Pathzero has been exhilarating, challenging and an incredible learning curve. My involvement with Antler early on opened my eyes to a new horizon that I’d never considered before.

Bree Pagonis

WIRL

We had never stepped foot in the startup space before. Antler’s support from initial ideation through to setting us up for success when pitching to external investors was invaluable.

Entrepass Partner

Our Team

A better future will not happen automatically—the world needs talented, driven, and resilient people to build it. By helping thousands of founders launch and scale the next generation of great companies, our vision is to make progress inevitable.

James McClure
Partner

James is a Partner at Antler Australia and co-leading the Australia operations. He is a seasoned C-level exec who brings over 15 years of tech operating experience across EMEA, APAC and the US.

Previously, he was the CCO for Adzuna, running its business across 16 global markets. Prior, he led the Enterprise business for SeatGeek and was GM for Airbnb UK and Northern Europe. James spent his initial tech career at Google in London, Sydney and Singapore; most notably launching local markets and YouTube across APAC.

Mike Abbott
Partner

Mike is a Partner at Antler Australia and co-leads the Australia operations. He's a seasoned operator and investor who kickstarted his career in equity capital markets and mergers and acquisitions.

Mike's journey with Uber began as the second employee in Asia and the 121st globally. As the Head of Operations for Australia and New Zealand, he played a pivotal role in building a thriving multi-billion-dollar business locally. Over the course of six years, he witnessed the local team's remarkable growth, scaling it from just three members to a formidable team of over 500. This experience gave him invaluable insights into scaling businesses and driving growth in challenging markets.

Following his time at Uber, Mike co-founded and led Kaddy, a B2B marketplace. Under his leadership as CEO, Kaddy was acquired for $34 million within three years. 

Mike also brings over 20 years of investment experience, including numerous direct and indirect angel investments. His diverse background and extensive experience have made him a sought-after advisor and mentor, offering valuable insights to early stage businesses.

Stefan Knight
Director, Queensland

Stefan is leading Antler in Australia's expansion into Queensland as Director of the state. He has a proven track record of leadership, innovation and results at companies such as ClimateSalad, AWS, GorillaStack, Telstra's accelerator, muru-D, and Dimension Data. Stefan has been in tech startups since the 90s, holding roles in development, systems engineering, product management, product marketing, business development, corporate development and sales. He has built customer facing teams, partner programs and channels globally for startups and enterprises.

Sarah Kimmorley
Vice President

Sarah is responsible for scaling Antler’s presence in Australia by delivering operational efficiencies and frameworks across the firm. Sarah is also responsible for Antler Australia’s marketing and brand presence, partnerships and business development, and people and culture. Before joining Antler, Sarah was the General Manager at Business Insider Australia and Gizmodo Media Group, leading four globally renowned digital media brands in Australia.

Michael Kron
Director (Australia)

Michael is responsible for Australia’s regional capital function, coaching portfolio companies and managing Melbourne based strategic partnerships. He has over 10 years of strategy consulting experience at a global full service consulting firm and has been an independent advisor for CEOs and global startups from seed to Series A. Michael also supported Square Peg with US$500m capital raising across two funds.

Akhil Sharma
Director, Investments

Akhil is responsible for Antler’s Pre-Launch delivery, overall improvement of investment processes, and is Melbourne’s lead founder-facing presence. He has over 7 years of experience in strategy and operations at Uber and Agoda and more recently leading the Scaleup Program for later stage startups at EnergyLab, one of Australia’s most prominent climate tech accelerators.

Min Tan
Finance, Manager

Min is the Finance Manager in Australia. Min is responsible for leading Antler’s Australian finance function.

Min is an experienced finance professional spanning over 15 years having held senior roles across telecommunications, fin-tech and banking industries. His most recent role was head of finance in a web3 stablecoin project.

Joel Cacciotti
Manager, Scouting

Joel is responsible for discovering exceptional founders to join Antler. As a successfully exited founder himself, Joel is a serial entrepreneur with his most notable startup, Hey Tom, which was acquired by Hometime. He has also advised various startups across a variety of industries. Previous to running his own businesses, he specialised in Sales and Sales Management for fast growing startups.

Rachel Guest
Senior Manager, Program

Rachel leads the community function and delivery for Pre-Launch founders at Antler. This involves managing all cohort operations for the Antler founders in the Formation and Validation stage of the process, curating learning and development content. Prior to joining Antler, Rachel had over 10 years of experience in tertiary education with the Australian Graduate School of Management.

Will Griffiths
Investment Manager, APAC

Will is responsible for assisting founders with ideas and pitches, and general Pre-Launch delivery. He is also involved in fund performance reporting and analysis. In an APAC capacity, Will is responsible for assisting with the launch of new fund locations (i.e. Japan, Korea and China), and implementing new initiatives across the region. He has 3 years of experience as a Management Consultant at LEK Consulting.

Maeve Couch
Manager, Marketing and Communications

As the Marketing and Communications Manager, Maeve is focussed on bolstering Antler Australia's marketing and media presence while helping nurture and build robust digital and physical identities for their Australian founder cohorts. Working with startups for over 5 years, including the fintech Cape as their Marketing Manager and through her own digital marketing company, she has amplified a diverse suite of companies from their inception to global expansion.

Adirani Heraputeri
Manager, Community

Melbourne-based Community Manager Rani aims to widen Antler’s reach in the ecosystem. Her role involves attracting exceptional founders to the program and supporting the Antler community’s growth and success. Prior to Antler, Rani’s experience includes launching market and building communities for WeWork in Jakarta, working for Indonesia’s biggest angel investment network, a gender lens VC fund, and serving as Global Program Manager at She Loves Tech.

Seamus Dines-Mutaner
Portfolio Associate

Seamus is a Portfolio Associate supporting active Australian portfolio companies, completing due diligence in follow-on investments, and fostering relationships with other investors in the VC ecosystem. Seamus previously worked as a Management Consultant at L.E.K. Consulting where he worked on a variety of projects across transaction due diligence, strategy and performance improvement, including high profile acquisitions in a range of industries. Prior to this, he worked for a biotechnology group and also completed an internship with KPMG in their Policy, Programs and Evaluation team.

Nina Leong
Growth Associate, Scouting

Nina is an Associate in Scouting based in the Melbourne office. She has a passion for data and analytics and uses it to strategically identify the most exceptional founders and onboard them into the Antler program. Prior to Antler, she worked in PwC's Deals Advisory business and lead operations for the expansion of Deliveroo across Australia.

Tessa Osborne
Investment Analyst

Tessa comes from a background of being a founder herself and is responsible for executing our overall due diligence process, facilitating world class program delivery and founder experience, and building processes and systems geared towards operational efficiency.

Gwen Masonsong
Operations Associate

Gweneth Masonsong, or Gwen, was born and raised in Manila, Philippines and moved to Australia in 2019 for University. She now helps the Operations team look after a wide range of Residency operations including program delivery, founder logistics, and events. Her educational background is in Biomedical Engineering, but her career has been a mixture of Startup/VC Operations and Social Media Management/Marketing. She started her career in operations in biotechnology startup, Inventia Life Science, where she worked on developing systems for the people function, particularly in the stages of hiring and retention, as well as reorganised their information architecture. She was also in the program team of the inaugural Techstars program in Sydney.

James McClure and Mike Abbott
Partners

James and Mike co-lead the Australia operations of Antler as partners based out of Canberra (ACT) and Sydney (NSW), respectively. James is a seasoned C-level exec who brings 15+ years of tech operating experience across EMEA, APAC and the US. Mike has over 20 years of investment experience and is an established operator and investor, including numerous direct and indirect angel investments.

Mike Abbott
Partner

Mike is a Partner at Antler Australia and co-leads the Australia operations. He's a seasoned operator and investor who kickstarted his career in equity capital markets and mergers and acquisitions.

Mike's journey with Uber began as the second employee in Asia and the 121st globally. As the Head of Operations for Australia and New Zealand, he played a pivotal role in building a thriving multi-billion-dollar business locally. Over the course of six years, he witnessed the local team's remarkable growth, scaling it from just three members to a formidable team of over 500. This experience gave him invaluable insights into scaling businesses and driving growth in challenging markets.

Following his time at Uber, Mike co-founded and led Kaddy, a B2B marketplace. Under his leadership as CEO, Kaddy was acquired for $34 million within three years. 

Mike also brings over 20 years of investment experience, including numerous direct and indirect angel investments. His diverse background and extensive experience have made him a sought-after advisor and mentor, offering valuable insights to early stage businesses.

Seamus Dines-Mutaner
Portfolio Associate

Seamus is a Portfolio Associate supporting active Australian portfolio companies, completing due diligence in follow-on investments, and fostering relationships with other investors in the VC ecosystem. Seamus previously worked as a Management Consultant at L.E.K. Consulting where he worked on a variety of projects across transaction due diligence, strategy and performance improvement, including high profile acquisitions in a range of industries. Prior to this, he worked for a biotechnology group and also completed an internship with KPMG in their Policy, Programs and Evaluation team.

Jason Li
Investment Analyst

Jason is responsible for supporting the preparation and delivery of feedback forms, founder resources and tools, and workshops. Primarily working across Formation and Validation as well as Due Diligence, he strives to ensure founders have an enjoyable and productive experience at Antler Australia. He is also the Consulting Director of 180 Degrees Consulting where he facilitates pro-bono consulting for some of Australia’s largest NFPs, such as headspace and Redkite.

Maeve Couch
Manager, Marketing and Communications

As the Marketing and Communications Manager, Maeve is focussed on bolstering Antler Australia's marketing and media presence while helping nurture and build robust digital and physical identities for their Australian founder cohorts. Working with startups for over 5 years, including the fintech Cape as their Marketing Manager and through her own digital marketing company, she has amplified a diverse suite of companies from their inception to global expansion.

Akhil Sharma
Director, Investments

Akhil is responsible for Antler’s Pre-Launch delivery, overall improvement of investment processes, and is Melbourne’s lead founder-facing presence. He has over 7 years of experience in strategy and operations at Uber and Agoda and more recently leading the Scaleup Program for later stage startups at EnergyLab, one of Australia’s most prominent climate tech accelerators.

Antler in Australia
Michael Kron
Director (Australia)

Michael is responsible for Australia’s regional capital function, coaching portfolio companies and managing Melbourne based strategic partnerships. He has over 10 years of strategy consulting experience at a global full service consulting firm and has been an independent advisor for CEOs and global startups from seed to Series A. Michael also supported Square Peg with US$500m capital raising across two funds.

Rachel Guest
Senior Manager, Program

Rachel leads the community function and delivery for Pre-Launch founders at Antler. This involves managing all cohort operations for the Antler founders in the Formation and Validation stage of the process, curating learning and development content. Prior to joining Antler, Rachel had over 10 years of experience in tertiary education with the Australian Graduate School of Management.

Xavier Burton
Manager, Finance

Xavier is the Finance Manager in Australia. He previously served clients as a Strategy, Finance & Risk Consultant across Public and Private sector contexts’ while holding leadership positions with KPMG and Coras. Prior to moving back to Australia in 2014, he was a Public Company Auditor with EY in the United States. Xavier is a Chartered Accountant and previously a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Illinois.

Yash Dave
Analyst, Investments

Yash is an analyst in the Investments team, ensuring the Pre-Launch delivery runs smoothly and supports the founder experience, with a focus on the Melbourne community. He is currently studying Bachelor of Science (Honours) at Monash University specialising in research commercialisation and impact entrepreneurship.

Jai Singh
Associate, Investments

Jai, an Associate in the Investments team, is responsible the legal execution of Antler’s investment in its portfolio companies. He supports fund performance reporting and other strategic fund initiatives. Jai helps founders on their 0-to-1 journey by validating ideas, delivering masterclasses and providing coaching.Prior to Antler, he spent 3 years as a Management Consultant at Deloitte.

Skye Theodorou
Co-founder & CEO
Nick Glynn
Co-founder
Zoe Thompson
Head of Finance, APAC

Zoe is responsible for leading Antler’s finance function across the APAC region, including our key APAC markets of Australia, China, India, Japan and Korea. She has 10 years of professional experience spanning Private Clients sector at PwC in Sydney, and working across Audit, Business and Personal Tax Service. Prior to Antler, she worked in London as the UK Financial Controller of a large multinational cybersecurity company.

Will Griffiths
Investment Manager, APAC

Will is responsible for assisting founders with ideas and pitches, and general Pre-Launch delivery. He is also involved in fund performance reporting and analysis. In an APAC capacity, Will is responsible for assisting with the launch of new fund locations (i.e. Japan, Korea and China), and implementing new initiatives across the region. He has 3 years of experience as a Management Consultant at LEK Consulting.

Steve Gledden
Venture Partner

Steve is a Venture Partner and Advisor for Antler Sydney, providing advice and guidance to founders in the program on corporate strategy, fundraising and strategic partnerships. Steve is the former co-founder, Chief Revenue Officer and EVP Corporate Strategy at aiPod, an Idealab company developing City Integrated Autonomous Mobility. He's also a mentor at 500 startups, Venture Partner at Forward Partners in London, and active investor and advisor to multiple startups in the UK and Australia.

Sam Hilditch
Head of Melbourne

Sam is responsible for all operations and strategy from Antler Australia's Melbourne Office, and also leads our Pre-Launch cohort. Prior to this, Sam was the head of Product Strategy and a Product Manager at Airwallex, the fastest Australian company to become a unicorn. He was also the General Manager of Airbnb UK and Northern Europe, Airbnb's #2 territory globally, throughout COVID-19 and Airbnb's IPO in 2020. Sam holds an MBA from the University of Oxford, and Commerce and Law degrees from the University of Adelaide.

Natasha Badrov
Program Coordinator

Natasha is the Program Coordinator for Antler in Australia. She supports the Program Team in running an inspiring, motivating and engaging program for each of the Antler Cohorts. She has a background in Events, L&D and Education Outreach and has a passion for ensuring everyone feels heard, seen and empowered. Prior to Antler Natasha was contracting at Google where she was in the Education Outreach team and was also on the board of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Business Association as an Event Director.

Matthew Browne
Venture Partner

Matthew is a Venture Partner and Advisor for Antler Sydney, mentoring and guiding Antler founders. Matthew is also the CEO and co-founder of Donesafe, a market leading governance, risk and compliance platform, co-founder of Whispli, a secure, anonymous, two-way communication platform and founding advisor to a number of startups including Ezi Debt Collection, Goanna Solutions and MeFleet. Prior to this, Matthew held senior roles in health and safety, strategy and governance with Commonwealth Bank, Leighton Contractors, Arrium and Nine Entertainment.

Markus Jacobi
Associate Director, Portfolio

Markus is an Associate Director at Antler in Sydney. Prior to joining Antler, Markus worked as a Management Consultant at Bain & Company in Germany and previously spent his time across the globe to improve the business of early-stage investors as well as to support startups grow and get funded.

Lauren Williams
Venture Partner

As well as being a venture partner at Antler, Lauren is a non-executive director of three online businesses Cashrewards (ASX:CRW), Carbar and iSeekplant. Previously Lauren has led start ups and scale ups. She was CEO of CarsGuide for five years during which time she grew the business significantly resulting in an exit to Cox Automotive (USA). She founded Getaway Lounge (for Nine Entertainment) which was sold and became Luxury Escapes. She has worked in digital for nearly twenty years with senior roles at BBC Worldwide (UK and Aus), Nine Entertainment and Fairfax Media.

Laura Faulconer
Associate Partner

Laura is the Director of Portfolio for Antler in Australia. She leads the process of providing post-investment support and resource allocation to enable portfolio company and fund success. She is also building new network relationships to attract an even broader range of people joining the Antler portfolio. Laura has founded several successful Australian and international deep tech accelerator programs and has been on investment and portfolio teams in early-stage venture capital.

Jeeva Suresh
Venture Partner

Jeeva is a Venture Partner at Antler and is a founding partner of Helix collective, a software engineering consultancy and venture studio. Over the last seven years he has built and launched products for clients large (Macquarie, Canva, Sydney Airport, Scentre) and growing (around Series A: Qwilr, Veyor, PowerlinesPro, etc).

India Morish
Senior Manager, Scouting

India is responsible for leading the attraction, assessment and securing of all founders joining the Pre-Launch cohorts for Antler Australia. She has been with Antler for over two years, and has played a key role in recruiting the past 8 cohorts. Before Antler, India was a Managing Consultant at Robert Walters, a global recruitment consultancy, where she spent nearly five years specialising in building teams.

Grace Wearne
Senior Manager, Marketing & Comms

Grace is responsible for strengthening and bolstering Antler’s brand presence in Australia. With a passion for tech and innovation communications, Grace has over six years of experience in helping Aussie and global disruptors tell their stories. Prior to Antler, she worked at GoFundMe Australia and award-winning tech PR agency, Sling & Stone. She competed in SpaceX's Hyperloop Pod competition in 2016.

Charlie Wood
Venture Partner

A 25+ year veteran of the tech' industry, Charlie has held roles from startup founder to global scale up leader. Currently, he is working on a few new startups/projects and advisory roles across Australian startups and scale ups and is the founder of a venture consulting business - NightBadger. As well as being Venture Partner at Antler, Charlie is Strategic Advisor at KPMG High Growth Ventures.

Akshat Agarwal
Manager, Investments

Akshat is an Investments and Scouting Manager at Antler Australia based in the Sydney Office. He was the first employee in the Antler Australia Office.He has led and supported several roles in startups ranging from fintech, edtech and SaaS. Prior to Antler he led a NFP, Textbook Ventures with the aim of educating all students in Australia about entrepreneurship.

Susie Sugden
Advisor

Susie is a CEO with a track record scaling startups into market leaders. Focused on consumer, and consumer tech, with experience working across Southeast Asia and Australia.

Yingzhao Zhu
Former Senior Associate

Yingzao is formerly a Senior Associate at Antler. She is now a final-year Master student (majoring in teaching) at the University of Sydney and is a self-started marketer and copywriter.

Penny Locaso
Happiness Hacker
Bede Moore
Chief Commercial Officer

Bede was the Founding Managing Partner of Antler Australia and is now the firm's Chief Commercial Officer. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in starting and scaling technology led digital businesses. Before Antler, Bede was the CEO of Sydney’s peak technology industry body, TechSydney, and prior to this he was the co-founder and managing director of Indonesia’s largest ecommerce site, Lazada, which was acquired by Alibaba in 2017 for US$3.5 billion.

Anthony Millet
Partner, Co-head

Anthony is a partner of Antler Australia and a Global Partner, Co-Head of Antler Capital. Anthony is an experienced entrepreneur and CEO that has co-founded, scaled and sold market-leading businesses globally in the financial services and ecommerce retail sectors. Prior to joining Antler, Anthony was the co-founder and CEO of BrickX where he successfully launched the business, led it through $9m in Series A funding from high profile VC's including Westpac's Reinventure and NAB Ventures, and scaled BrickX to over 12,000 investors.

Aswathi Thandassery
Strategy Consultant
Adam Ross
Founder and Co-CEO
HuiLin Chin
Sabbatical / Postgrad
Matt Browne
Co-founder
Siobhan O'Toole
Independent Consultant
Snow Li
Psychosocial Projects Lead
Christian Wanner
Venture Partner
Sarah Kimmorley
Vice President

Sarah is responsible for scaling Antler’s presence in Australia by delivering operational efficiencies and frameworks across the firm. Sarah is also responsible for Antler Australia’s marketing and brand presence, partnerships and business development, and people and culture. Before joining Antler, Sarah was the General Manager at Business Insider Australia and Gizmodo Media Group, leading four globally renowned digital media brands in Australia.

Adele Moynihan
Associate Partner

Adele is responsible for leading Scouting and Angel fundraising. Scouting is a pivotal function for Antler to secure exceptional founders to build businesses with the Fund. Turning to fundraising, Antler holds a powerful angel community that deploys post Antler's initial investment. Prior to Antler, she was an early hire of now unicorn SafetyCulture and with corporate VC the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Digital Ventures.

Liz Kaelin
Consultant
Anjali Warrier
Marketing Executive AUNZ

News from Antler

Read our latest insights and stories about our phenomenal founders

View all
Antler Reveals New Aussie Terms

Four years and one Fund on, a lot has changed at Antler Australia. In this new series, the global early-stage VC reveals how it's working with founders from day zero, path to its first 100 Australian investments, introduces two new Partners, and announces some of the best terms for founders in the country.

How To Find A Co-Founder In Australia

Entrepreneurship can be a challenging and rewarding journey, but it is not one that should be taken alone. A co-founder is an essential element in building a successful startup.

Antler Australia's Residency Structure: A comprehensive guide for aspiring founders

Embarking on the entrepreneurial path can be intimidating and riddled with uncertainty and potential risks. Challenges may arise for founders in identifying the perfect co-founder, affirming their concept's viability, or establishing a network and solid route to funding. Antler Australia's residency offers a well-organised framework, mitigating the hazards associated with startup creation.

FAQs

Who is an Antler founder?

Humans rarely fit into neat categories, but broadly speaking it is those with the skills relevant to early-stage business building combined with Founder DNA.

The backgrounds we think great founders come from include:

  • Returning founders: Tried and tested founders who have valuable experience through successes and/or failures and are ready to build their next venture.
  • Business leaders: Commercial pros with strengths in go-to-market, business model building, and securing customers and capital.
  • Technology and Product leaders: Builders with their hands on in the code base, architecting scalable systems, or setting and executing the product vision and leading teams.
  • Subject matter pros or functional experts: Those with a specialised skill set that unlocks the idea behind a business usually from professional or academic experience. These individuals have identified an unmet customer need in their field, under-utilised technology, or hold Intellectual Property that can be commercialised
  • 0 to 1: Seasoned in startups and highly knowledgeable in early-stage through to hypergrowth, these individuals have held defining roles in the growth journey of companies.
  • Visionaries: Those who have exceptional, unique, and non-conventional backgrounds and see the world differently, complemented with strong grit and hustle to be successful.
How long is a Residency?

Participation is full-time for roughly 11 weeks. However, this timing is not set as there is potential for you to reach an earlier Investment Committee or roll into the next cohort. We take three intakes a year: January, May and August.

How do I know if I’m eligible to apply?

You must have full working rights in Australia to be eligible. It is a legal requirement under Australian law to be either an Australian citizen, hold Permanent Residence or a permanent visa to be a Director of a company. 

Where does the Residency take place?

Antler is best experienced in person via our locations in Sydney and Melbourne. This best positions you to find a co-founder, integrate into the cohort and Antler more broadly, and enable us to get to know you. 

If you are not located within easy travel of either location we require you to spend at least 3 weeks in one or a mix of both. To allow for founders from each location to receive a comparable experience, and enable founders to meet and facilitate cross-location co-founding teams, some sessions are run virtually.

Terms of Investment

We share our full term sheet for transparency at the point of offering places to join Antler and terms are fixed.

If, after pitching to Antler’s Investment Committee, you are successful in receiving funding your company will receive AU$225,000 for a 12% equity stake. At this point, Antler takes a $68,000 program fee. 

The company receives $157,000 net at a pre-money valuation of $1,650,000. 

In addition to this, you may also receive $1,500 in the initial weeks and an additional $1,500 if you progress into the Due Diligence stage. 

This is designed to cover your basic living costs and does not constitute an investment.

Why does Antler take a program fee?

Due to the hands-on nature of our operations and global support services, at the point of Antler’s investment, a $68,000+GST fee is taken. This fee will be deducted from the gross investment amount paid to your company. 

This allows us to provide significant ongoing support to the scaling of your company.

The fee is taken from the Antler investment so if you do not receive a successful outcome from pitching at the Investment Committee no payment is owed. 

Does Antler invest in solo founders?

Antler has a strong bias toward co-founding teams, with the average consisting of 2.3 founders. 

We do have examples of solo founders in our portfolio but they are few. 

Antler believes in co-founders because:

  • As a Day Zero investor, a solo founder represents a significant key person risk to the company.
  • We back complementary, non-overlapping teams. This means two or three founders who can own functions of the business fitting to their areas of expertise. (Eg. tech + domain.) This gives the founding team the breadth to execute at pace and clear ownership and decision-making ability. It also negates the need to outsource costly areas of the business to increase run rate.
  • Founder health is vital and operating as a co-founding team enables you to spread not just the operational but also the emotional load of launching and scaling a company.
What happens if I don’t find a co-founder?

Joining Antler gives you access to a vetted talent pool of potential co-founders. However, if you do not find a co-founder in your cohort, you are not restricted to the four walls of Antler and we encourage you to do your own external search. In this case, we will ask you to introduce them to us and we will conduct an interview. If that goes well, we will send them a Letter of Offer to join you in the current cohort.

Another option is that, via an invitation by us, you can join the next Antler cohort as a returning founder. We have many examples where we have backed a team that initially started in separate cohorts.

What type of companies does Antler invest in?

Antler is business model and industry agnostic. This can be seen via the breadth of our portfolio

Globally, Antler has invested in over 1,000+ companies to date across many industries. In Australia, we have an active portfolio size of >100 companies that is well-balanced across different sectors. We have:

  • Enterprise SaaS startups operating in construction site management, cyber security, Talent management, and computer vision. 
  • Digital platforms in verticals such as health, learning, and pet services. 
  • Services and D2C in waste management, consumer loyalty, fashion and personalised books. 
  • Fintech and Insurtech startups within SME lending and new insurance products covering a range of industries such as SaaS, FinTech, GreenTech, and ConsumerTech.
Do I need to apply with a business idea?

At Antler, we accept founders with and without ideas. We know that in early-stage business building a lot can change, ideas pivot and business models are adapted, which is why we primarily back the team’s ability to execute.

This means you can join Antler with your skill set to bring to another’s idea. If you are wanting to work on a formed idea, we will test your founder-problem fit i.e. what gives you the unfair advantage to win in your chosen area?

Equally, teams with formed ideas and initial validation can join. In this case, our fixed terms are the same so if you have already taken on capital this should be a consideration.

Learn more

At Antler, we believe that founders with drive, grit, and vision are the keys to a better future. 

But as founders embark on their entrepreneurial journey, there are some nuanced questions to consider. 

Have you found the right idea? Do you need another co-founder? Can you afford to take a pay cut?

We want to help. 

That’s why we’ve curated a list of resources to help you go from day zero to greatness. 

Sign up now to get access.

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