Residency

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 Josie Stoker, co-Founder of Capture. She and her co-founder Aziz Abdul have built an app to track carbon emissions.

Capture is a digital platform enabling organisations to mobilise one of their greatest assets in the fight for a sustainable future - their workforce. Through their app, integrations and dashboard, they run planet-friendly challenges and help companies live-monitor their CO2 savings.

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Tim Fung is the co-founder and CEO of Airtasker, Australia's number one marketplace for local services.

Since its inception in 2012, Airtasker has gone on to enable more than $1 billion in working opportunities and acquired more than 4.3 million registered users. On top of that, in March 2021, Airtasker made its debut on the ASX and is now valued at $255 million.

During a virtual fireside chat, Antler Managing Partner Bede Moore spoke to Tim about his entrepreneurial experience thus far, Airtasker's growth to date, and advice he has for others looking to pursue a similar path.

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 Arun Sugumaran, co-Founder and CEO of ArtWallSt. ArtWallSt is a global exchange for art where anyone can become collectors, exhibitors and investors. In addition to bringing art closer to people through everyday physical spaces, the startup is currently developing a platform where blockchain-authenticated physical artworks can be traded on the platform.

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When we interview visionaries, we want to get to know them. The one thing we love is when they open up about their failures and hard times. When we feel tears coming up, we know we’re on the way to a beautiful story.

Katherine McConnell, Founder & CEO of Brighte shares her journey to building her startup, as well as how she’s been able to achieve 912% revenue growth over the past three years and built relationships with investors such as Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of Atlassian.

I've been an active angel investor for about ten years now. Since we started Antler back in 2018 I've been part of many of our investment committees (IC) around the world. Every IC member and angel investor is different and will have different views on what makes a good investment. For me, there are three specific things I focus on when a team pitches to Antler for investment: The people, the product, and, of course, the potential.

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 Sophie Jokelson, co-founder and CMO of Cove.

Cove is a coliving company putting renters first. They make it easier, faster and more flexible to rent comfortable homes at honest prices. Their flatshare rooms, studios and apartments are hand-picked in top city locations, thoughtfully furnished and include utilities. The bookings process is digital and hassle-free, and the community of 'Coveys' get access to a network of like-minded people as well as exclusive events and perks.

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Welcome to Antler's circles series, where we bring industry leaders, founders, and experts working in the same  sector together to problem solve, share emerging trends and technologies. Through this series, Antler will provide unparalleled access to closed room discussions around the challenges and opportunities experienced by those innovating at the forefront of the industry.

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The step from software engineer or senior architect to CTO can feel like a quantum leap. Knowing when to make the transition, and how, is often a barrier that prevents people from taking the leap sooner.

With that in mind, Antler recently hosted a CTO panel to share first-hand advice of those who have done it, with those who are aspiring to get there.

Bahadir embodies the purest definition of entrepreneurship. From his early days in Turkey to living in the States in his youth and suddenly taking the leap and emigrating to Singapore, he has never given up on his dream: having a Global impact and improving the lives of millions. He left us thinking that we all have a role to play and that it is never too late to start dreaming big and change the world. Besides living and breathing entrepreneurship, he is a philosopher at heart, and ended this interview with life lessons that will stay with us during our entrepreneurial journey!

A conversation with Tudor Mihailescu and Valentin Kassarnig, co-founders of SpeechifAI, Antler Amsterdam portfolio company.

The founder’s 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 Mira Gleisberg, CEO & co-founder of RespiQ.

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We love our visionaries because of their captivating and provoking stories. A visionary is extraordinary because of his/her unparalleled level of energy and enthusiasm. Charlotte filled the room with joy and electric energy from the first second, making it impossible for us not to smile. Her positivity and drive were contagious and made us realize that inner fire is the most crucial trait anyone can possess. What a force of nature Charlotte is!

A conversation with Aleks Orlic, former co-founder of Penta

Our team of venture capitalists, domain experts and entrepreneurs at Antler are always on the lookout for exceptional talent with the potential to build the defining companies of tomorrow. Read on to find out what we look for in a successful founder and how you can kickstart your entrepreneurial journey.

Working in venture capital offers insights into the problems, challenges, and new markets today’s entrepreneurs are addressing at the very earliest opportunity, a window on disruption and innovation. Business models are being redefined at an ever-quickening pace, and this is particularly visible in FinTech. We recently sat down with the founders of all of our FinTech investments with the following key learnings and insights.

Wisnu is one of the humblest of our visionaries. During our conversation, he never mentioned that he just raised $5 million or that his tools were used by 850,000 workers across Indonesia. Wisnu doesn’t care about impressive numbers; he simply wants to create a positive impact around him. The calm and optimistic energy surrounding him is magical and made us forget all our everyday life concerns.

Every year, two million Americans are denied mortgage loan applications. Those rejection rates are disproportionately higher for minority communities and millennials. The homeownership rate clocks in at nearly 74% for white populations, but only 44% of black households own their homes. Today, millennials are significantly less likely to be homeowners than baby boomers and Gen Xers.

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Venture capital (VC) financing to startups founded by women exceeded $20 billion for the first time in 2019. This is up from $2 billion 10 years ago. Despite that, in Germany, just 16% of founders are female, while this number is steadily increasing, there is still much work to be done.

We invest in the defining companies of tomorrow. But we know it all starts with you. We help exceptional people build startups from the earliest stages. When you join Antler, you join a community of founders, get support from a global platform of experts, resources, and receive investments to scale your ideas.

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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 Jiawen Ngeow, co-founder of DayOne.

DayOne is revolutionising offline operations for stores by providing a turnkey solution that optimises and streamlines frontline staff communication and collaboration. Their mission is to make offline businesses as easy to run as online ones.

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Following an investment of DKK 50 million into Antler's Nordic Fund from the Danish state's investment fund Vækstfonden, Antler is launching in Copenhagen to attract and support highly specialised founders from across the world and invest in the most promising 'green' companies of the future.

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Antler welcomes Nitin Sharma, who is joining as a Partner and co-lead for all India efforts. To help accelerate the tremendous innovation and value creation in the Indian tech ecosystem, Antler aims to invest over US$100M in India across funds in the next 4 years. These funds will support exceptional founders from the idea stage, all the way to Series A/B. Nitin will co-lead the India efforts with Rajiv Srivatsa, co-founder of Urban Ladder.

Behind every successful company, there is a whole team of great minds. Having a strong co-founding team is key but having incredible early employees onboard can be equally important for a company's success at the very beginning. Finding the right early employees can be hard as oftentimes they need to have a certain mix of skills, as well as be go-getter, have an entrepreneurial mindset, and be willing to operate both on a strategic level and doa the groundwork. We built The Talent Network - to help our portfolio companies scout and hire the best talent from the very beginning.

Jordi Hays and Matt Jung, co-founders of Antler US portfolio company Likewise, know their way around e-commerce. Prior to Likewise, Jordi founded Branded Native, a creator ad network used by leading DTC brands. And over the span of fifteen years as a serial entrepreneur, Matt built companies in the consumer space like Wellen (acquired by Huckberry.com), Sonne Care, and Grover, while simultaneously consulting for Companion Medical (acq. by Medtronic), Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort, Esby Apparel, Fitness19, Western Rise, and FitScrubs, among others.

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Starting a company is a big deal. At Antler, we believe in empowering entrepreneurial talent with the right tools to make an impact on the world. Here's a snapshot of what we look for in prospective founders.

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After 2,000 registrations, the world tuned in to hear from 13 local portfolio companies

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 month, we speak to Preet Gona and Alexis Zirah, co-founders of ARR Squared.

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Antler US portfolio company Werkit, which connects high-growth software companies to remote self-managed teams, received the Covid-19 Innovation Award from the Smart City Expo World Congress today. The Covid-19 Innovation Award recognizes companies that have contributed to the successful transformation, adaption, or response of the world's cities to the pandemic. Werkit has connected workers in Zambia to remote digital jobs, digital banking services, skill advancement assistance, and a virtual community of support throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

Antler opens its office in Berlin to strengthen the local start-up ecosystem, promising pre-seed investment at unprecedented scale.Partners of the fund covering Germany and Central Europe are Alan Poensgen and Dr. Christoph Klink.

Antler US portfolio company Casting Depot, the professional network for media and entertainment, is emerging as the industry's premier marketplace for all facets of the talent booking process. Co-founders Lacey Kaelani and Brad Larson have led Casting Depot through a 446% month over month increase in talent user growth. The Casting Depot team is working with Antler to drive user traction and refine their product offering as they field casting calls from industry players like Netflix, HBOMax, Twitch, Bumble, Verizon, and MTV.

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Antler portfolio company Caria is the first AI-powered platform for women in menopause. To celebrate World Menopause day, they introduced Caria Premium Memberships last week. Co-founders Arfa Rehman and Scott Gorman collaborated with the Antler US team to build and refine this membership and launch several new features, which include a new digital behavioral health program and more advanced health tracking.

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We received 2600 applications for our second UK cohort, which was a 50% increase from the previous cohort. 71 founders were selected to join Antler, half of whom had previously launched a startup. After two months, we invested in seven startups which were built by these entrepreneurs. In keeping with our focus on supporting companies with diverse co-founding teams, over half of the companies that we invested in (four out of seven) had at least one woman founder, which is significantly above the London average of 21%.

After interviewing hundreds of founders and working with dozens of teams to build and grow their startups from scratch, Antler Partner Winnie Khoo shares some insights on her experiences and doles out some advice to aspiring founders.

Watch the video to get to know the team behind BrightBee - an Antler-backed AdTech startup that continuously explores the best audience to fully optimize social media ads using Machine Learning.

These six Antler-backed companies are now ready to tackle some of society’s toughest challenges through innovations such as revenue-based financing for SaaS startups, autonomous robots that handle meticulous farming tasks and software that maximizes the returns of building sites.

Marco Financial, "the first tech-enabled financing platform built for small and medium-sized Latin American exporters," announced in TechCrunch that it has secured $26M in funding and credit that will enable the company to address the $1.5T global trade finance gap that disproportionately impacts small-and medium-sized (SME) businesses. Marco supports SMEs based in Latin America, where a $350 billion trade finance gap blocks many exporters from participating in the US market. The funding includes an equity round, led by Antler and Struck Capital, and a credit facility underwritten by Arcadia Funds, LLC.

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Sehreen NoorAli, an accomplished former education technology executive and  diplomat, joined Antler in September 2019 determined to improve medical care  navigability for parents raising young children with health conditions.  Sehreen was intimately familiar with the industry's shortcomings and its  lack of technological infrastructure. "As a parent, you're in the  driver's seat of your child's health," Sehreen explains. "There's a  moment you realize that you only see a pediatrician every so often.  Ultimately, a parent is in charge of a child's healthcare journey. This was  a pain point I felt acutely as my daughter was diagnosed with a condition that  required considerable therapies."

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We are delighted to be collaborating with Truecaller — one of the fastest-growing communications apps impacting the world, in a bid to strengthen our commitment to support our startup founders with their journey as entrepreneurs.

It is no secret that industry leaders face challenges when it comes to fostering innovation and growth. Take a closer peek into how Antler Norway has managed to unlock mutual benefits - by innovating at speed and creating a culture of entrepreneurship with the support of top entrepreneurs from all around the world.

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If you are an entrepreneur looking for investment for your early-stage startup, you may wonder “What is my company worth?”. The answer to this question can be quite difficult to formulate. Most valuations are a negotiation; a balance of setting a price that is acceptable to the founders but also agreeable to the investors. There is no general rule of putting a price on a startup, however, we have some tips that will make your valuation process easier.

The founder 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 Anna Ratala, Co-Founder & CEO of Zvook.

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Raising money is critical to fuel growth, build credibility, and stay afloat. Without external funding, the vast majority of startups won't survive or have very slow growth. The amount of money needed to take a startup to the next stage of growth is usually beyond the ability of founders and their friends and family to finance. Here is why, when, and how much to raise in order to succeed.

This article is a second part of the series "Startup fundraising 101" - a resource that has been created in order to help all founders in their fundraising journey. Read the first article "Fundraising: What to expect  from the journey? Stages of startup funding" here.

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The internet gave people a place to learn about sex autonomously, not just through family, friends and traditional education. Insight into how others feel and think about sex has created more openness around the topic. With this came a deeper understanding of sexual psychology, and as Sachin Raoul and Robbie Coomber started to look into this rather taboo topic, they discovered that billions of people were suffering in silence.

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Meet Mast! Joy, Rob and Henry all joined Antler UK two weeks before the UK government announced the lockdown. Apart from informal discussions they had never brainstormed together in our offices. Everything happened remotely and they've never looked back!

Different nationalities, different backgrounds and different interests. Rob, the CEO, has seven years of experience working in Risk for Barclays in London and Frankfurt. Emmanuel, the CTO, has spent eight years in Academia. After his PhD in Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Sorbonne University in Paris, he joined University College London (UCL) as a Research Associate focusing on automatic persuasion methods for behaviour change. They probably would not have met if it wasn't for Antler.

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Environmentally conscious, commitment phobic, or just indecisive? In a market research survey conducted by Lab42 published by Adweek, most millenials today aged 18-38 prefer renting over purchasing goods. Today, thanks to the rise of rental subscription services ranging from clothing to furniture, tools to technology, millennials can now pick from best in class offerings and incur minimum cost for maximum gain, all while saving the environment. How's that for a mission?

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Antler held its fourth Singapore Demo Day and the first virtual one to an audience of investors, VCs and entrepreneurs from the global startup ecosystem. We had over 2800 people tune in to the live stream from our Demo Day landing page and YouTube. You can still get in touch with the new startups and rewatch their pitches through our post-Demo Day page.