Launch, build, and scale your startup with Antler in Malaysia
Get funded by a global VC that empowers the most exceptional founders with capital, mentorship, and the network to turn world-changing ideas into reality.
Kuala Lumpur
Fast-track your funding journey
Get early backing with Pre-Seed investment and ongoing support through follow-on funding up to Series C.
Dedicated coaching
Get hands-on mentorship from experienced founders and operators who’ve built and scaled successful startups.
Scale globally with the right partner
Leverage Antler's global presence to access international markets, customers, and investors.
Build with exceptional co-founders
Join a curated community of ambitious founders with complementary skills and shared values. Find the perfect co-founder match in a proven environment.
How Antler works
Whether you’re at pre-launch, pre-product, or pre-revenue stage, Antler will back you from day zero to greatness. We connect individuals with other driven founders to co-create and build from scratch, while startups with established teams can fast-track their growth with funding, mentorship, and a global network.
How we invest
Maximizing your success–from being your earliest backer to a long-term capital partner who provides follow-on funding and access to top VCs.
1. Initial Investment
If your startup passes our investment committee, we will invest $110,000 for 12% of your company via a SAFE agreement. This initial capital empowers you to build your product, attract early customers, and prepare for your next funding round.
2. Follow-on Funding (Next 9 Months)
As you raise capital from external institutional investors, we will match 50% of the amount raised, up to $250,000, at the latest valuation.
Example: If you raise $500,000 externally, we’ll invest an additional $250,000, bringing your total early-stage funding to $860,000 ($110,000 initial + $500,000 external + $250,000 matching).
This matching mechanism accelerates your growth while keeping terms founder-friendly.
3. Growth-stage Funding (Series A to C)
• Access our global network of investors through Antler’s Portfolio Showcase.
• Potential investment of up to $10 million to fuel your growth through Series C.
• Ongoing support to refine your strategy and prepare for future fundraising.
Get our investment info pack to learn more:
World-class support ecosystem
Join our immersive 5-10 week residency in Singapore's vibrant startup hub. You'll get:
- Direct mentorship from successful founders and operators
- Dedicated support in product, technology, and go-to-market strategies
- Access to Antler's global network of industry experts and investors
- Regular coaching sessions to refine your idea and business model
- Collaborative workspace in Singapore's central business district
Whether you're starting from scratch or scaling an existing venture, the residency is your launchpad to accelerate growth at breakneck speed.
Three steps to getting funded
1. Apply: Submit your application and share your vision with us
2. Connect: Meet our team for an in-depth discussion about your startup ambitions
3. Build: Get accepted and start building with Antler's full support
Powering builders with $4M in Credits and Perks
Antler gives you not only the capital and coaching but also the technical firepower to turn bold ideas into venture-scale companies. Access GPU credits, advanced AI tooling, and cloud services from top partners to validate and scale faster.
Bahadir Özdemir
Co-founder
Airalo
Wisnu Nugrahadi
Co-founder & CEO
Staffinc
Antler was our first investor—an incubator of optimists. Joining Antler wasn’t just about funding; it was about surrounding ourselves with people who see potential, take risks, and build. For anyone wondering if they should take the leap with Antler, my answer is an optimistic YES. There’s a big chance it could change your life, and I would do it all over again if I could.
Joining Antler connected us to an incredible global network of founders, investors, and mentors. Being part of this community gave us opportunities and insights we simply couldn’t have accessed on our own.
We’ve helped put hundreds of founders on a pathway to — global success
Fuelled by a passion that goes beyond traditional investing, we exist to increase our founders’ speed and maximise their success rate in solving important problems.
10,000+
Founders supported
1500+
Portfolio companies
30%
Companies with > 1 female founder
2018
Year Antler started
#1
Most active VC investor globally
24
Offices globally
FREQUENTLY —ASKED QUESTIONS
We believe that it all starts with people. By focusing on founder talent, rather than a specific industry or start-up idea, we identify talent and help them succeed in founding and scaling great companies.We back entrepreneurs from day zero—even before they have fully formed ideas or products.
Additionally, Antler doesn’t just provide funding—we offer hands-on mentorship and give you an unfair advantage through our global network of founders, advisors, and investors, helping you get from zero to one in the shortest time possible.
We welcome both individuals and co-founding teams with a strong drive to build high-growth tech startups, as well as, the skills relevant to early stage business building. Some examples of founder profiles that we have backed:
- Returning Founders: Experienced founders who have learned from past ventures—whether through success or failure—and are ready to build their next venture with valuable insights.
- Business Leaders: Commercial professionals skilled in go-to-market strategy, business model development, customer acquisition, and capital raising.
- Technology and Product Leaders: Builders with expertise in software engineering, system architecture, or product vision, who are eager to design and build innovative solutions.
- Functional and Domain Experts: Specialists with deep expertise—gained through either professional or academic experience—who’ve identified a unique, unmet need in their field, hold intellectual property, or see untapped potential in technology that can be commercialized.
- Zero to One Operators: Seasoned professionals and early employees with experience in taking startups from early-stage to hypergrowth, having played defining roles in building and scaling companies through critical phases.
No, you don’t need to have a fully formed idea to apply. That said, we especially value those who have a strong sense of their founder-market fit—a deep understanding of sectors or industries where they want to make an impact.
More important than having a solution is having a few problem statements you’re passionate about solving. If you have the curiosity and drive to build, Antler will help you refine these ideas, explore opportunities, and turn them into a scalable business.
Yes, even if you have an existing team or have already raised some funding, Antler can help accelerate your growth. We provide additional capital, strategic mentorship, and access to our global network of investors and industry experts to help you scale faster and reach your next milestones more efficiently.
Yes, we require founders to join our residency in Kuala Lumpur for a period of 5 to 10 weeks. It provides invaluable in-person access to mentorship, networking, and collaborative sessions with other founders. Being physically present also ensures you can fully engage with Antler’s resources and community.
We back ambitious founders building scalable tech solutions across all sectors. While we're sector-agnostic, we're particularly excited about AI/ML, SaaS, fintech, sustainability, and emerging technologies. We look for founders addressing significant market opportunities with innovative solutions that can scale globally.
Antler’s portfolio companies have collectively raised hundreds of millions in follow-on funding, with over 80% of them raising external capital within 12 months. Select portfolio companies making strong headway include Airalo, Reebelo, fileAI, Boxo, Volopay, and Qashier.
Ready to build something extraordinary?
Join Antler and instantly 10x your network: connect with industry leaders, validate your idea and scale your business with a global network of entrepreneurs.
MEET OUR TEAM
As Co-founder and Managing Partner Asia, Jussi works with a global team dedicated to building the most defining technology companies of tomorrow. Jussi leads Antler’s investments in the APAC region and supports founders in building and scaling their businesses, especially with growth and fundraising. He has over a decade of experience across different industries at Nokia, McKinsey, Deloitte and Morgan Stanley.
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Frank is a seasoned serial entrepreneur with 17 years of experience. As Country Head for Malaysia, he leads investment strategy and operations for the region. He founded a social networking service at 23 and established one of the largest Twitter directories in Korea. He also founded LivingSocial and Althea in Malaysia. With Frank's proven track record of building scalable businesses in Asia, his vast experiences will help Malaysians to think globally from Day Zero and expand Malaysia's entrepreneurial impact across borders.
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Najla is a Senior Manager leading Founder Scouting at Antler Malaysia. Prior to Antler, she held roles as a senior consultant at HSBC under their Digital Transformation Centre and McKinsey & Co as a generalist working on business strategy, and digital transformation projects across the region. Najla has also been in the startup ecosystem where she held the VP of Enterprise role at a Malaysian edtech company and co-founded a fintech startup. She started her career as a capital markets regulator, with Securities Commission, working on policies and regulations across investor protection, equity crowdfunding and fundraising frameworks. Najla graduated with a LLB from Queen Mary, University of London.
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Sean is the Manager running our Residency at Antler Malaysia. Prior to this, Sean headed B2B Partnerships at Lumos, a consumer electronics startup in the micromobility space & Solve Education, an edtech non-profit. In the earlier part of his career, Sean was Portfolio Manager at Endeavor, a global organisation supporting the growth of fast-growing startups. Sean was also a co-founder of Bubble Sports, a sports & team building company in Malaysia.
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Jin Ee supports founder scouting and program at Antler. With prior experience in marketing and a deep interest in Web3, he brings key insights to his role, helping drive the growth of innovative startups. Jin Ee holds an MBA from Xiamen University, Malaysia, and a degree in International Economics and Trade from Fuzhou University, China.
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Abu Bakar manages the financial operations at Antler Malaysia, focusing on reporting and compliance. Previously, he was the finance and operations lead at a HR tech startup. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Accountancy and is working towards his CFA accreditation.
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Eugene is an Investment & Portfolio Manager at Antler Southeast Asia, where he focuses on pre-seed and seed investments across AI/ML, developer tools, and vertical SaaS. He brings a unique operator-investor lens from his time as Product Lead at Wagely, where he scaled the user base, product, and established the company's growth function to Series A. Prior to this, Eugene built and launched BCG's global fintech intelligence platform and incubated corporate ventures at FutureLabs Ventures and Wright Partners, including dealcierge.io which was recently acquired.
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Antler portfolio companies raise capital from other leading VCs
