Unlock your entrepreneurial potential with Antler in Kenya

We encourage you to apply if you are a founder grappling with an ambitious problem statement, with unique insight into how to solve it, and have a strong tech/business background.

We typically accept founders that are pre-product. Antler helps early-stage founders iterate, improve, and articulate the problem they want to solve, and helps refine the quality of their solutions. Founders also will benefit from prior validation of the problem/solution (user research, stakeholder conversations, and prototype experiments) in the community.

Antler Nairobi can help founders come up with an idea from scratch. However, founders must be interested in going after ideas and problems with a unique/deep insight and take quick steps to validate them. We understand that things change quickly in the early stage with rapid iteration and customer feedback. Some founders may change their idea entirely in the first few months.

We are sector agnostic. So any industry applies, as long as the business is tech-enabled—i.e., uses technology as a key enabler or as a core part of the business.

Yes, we bring together founders from different backgrounds/skills and provide an environment to interact and form connections based on aligned goals and values. Antler does not assign co-founders, with the matching decision ultimately left to the founders.

You and the co-founder you want to work with at Antler must apply separately. Please let us know if this is the case during your interview.

We also accept founders and teams who have already launched their products. Antler helps these teams accelerate product-market fit and growth, and gain access to further rounds of capital. These profiles typically fall under the acceleration track. Early-stage startups do not necessarily go through the community program as some startups will likely be too advanced and hence will only be evaluated for investment.

Finding your first backers is an outstanding achievement. Typically, founders and teams who have raised in previous rounds will go through our acceleration track.

As a founder: You will be interviewing with Antler team members and partners to evaluate your background, your motivation to join Antler, your problem-solving abilities, and your ability to work with others. You do not need a deck for these interviews—these are conversations to get to know you better. As a startup: You will be interviewing Antler team members and partners to discuss your startup, team, and motivations. You will have one initial call and schedule one or two follow-ups based on our initial assessment.

For ideas built at Antler: If the Antler Investment Committee (IC) determines that your team and idea are exciting and viable, your team may receive an investment from the Antler East Africa Fund. The Antler East Africa fund will then provide USD 100K through SAFE for a 10% stake.

For existing pre-seed/seed startups: If the Antler IC determines that your team and idea are exciting and viable, Antler can join your ongoing pre-seed / early seed round with $100-200K tickets at a negotiated valuation.

The Antler Nairobi community is open to all founders from across Africa as long as these founders are able to relocate to Nairobi for the first phase of the program. We provide a modest stipend to help with the relocation.

Incubators and accelerators typically start working with preformed teams who have identified a product-market fit. Getting to that stage can be incredibly challenging. You need a team, a network of advisors, and access to capital. Antler removes these barriers related to entrepreneurship for people who are interested in starting a company from day one. We identify and invest in exceptional individuals and early-stage teams with the potential to build global companies. We are a people-led VC located in 25 locations with 600+ portfolio companies representing 40 industries. We don’t just invest, we create an ecosystem for great companies to be built.