Build your startup in 10 weeks with Antler in Brazil
We’re a global VC that supports Brazilian founders on their entrepreneurial journey from day zero to greatness.
Sao Paulo
Find your co-founder
Meet 60+ people with the same purpose as you: build the next big Brazilian startup.
Validate your business idea
Participate in masterclasses, workshops, and coaching sessions to transform your idea into reality.
Bulk your professional network
Get access to renowned venture capitalists and founders from the Brazilian ecosystem.
Pitch your startup to us
Best-performing teams get a chance to present their business to our Investment Committee and potentially receive our pre-seed investment.
How Antler works
Our 10-week residency is designed to support founders in the earliest stage of their entrepreneurial journey.
Scouting Process
Throughout the year, our scouting team is looking for the most talented and driven founders in Brazil. We select 60+ entrepreneurs to participate in each residency. These individuals come from varied backgrounds, but they all share the grit and resilience to create a new startup.
Download our brochure:
The Residency
The residency, which runs fully in-person in Sao Paulo, is a 10-week experience that gathers founders in the earliest stage of their journeys. Our day-zero support enables co-founder matchmaking, idea validation, and business modeling.
Our Investment
Best-performing teams in the residency get a chance to pitch their startups to Antler’s Investment Committee. When approved, they secure our pre-seed investment, which will enable their business to get off the ground.
Thais Sterenberg
CEO
Elephan.ai
João Bruno Palermo
CEO
ZNIT
Daniel Peixoto
Co-founder & CEO
Straloo
My experience at Antler was excellent: I met my co-founder there, accessed valuable content and relevant people, and gained the momentum needed to quickly bring our thesis to life. In just ten weeks, we went from zero to a company with a product, customers, support, and capital to start in a structured way.
Antler's residency was a game-changer experience for me. The access to a rich network of founders, venture capitalists, and experts, combined with their hands-on support, accelerated my learning curve and helped validate and refine my startup concept. Their ability to anticipate challenges and provide strategic guidance during the early stage was key in setting us on the path to success.
Entrepreneurship has always been a big dream. But we don’t always have everything aligned to embark on this journey. Antler's residency not only introduced me to like-minded individuals who shared my ambition to create something impactful, but the 10-week deadline also pushed me to refine my goals. Ultimately, I was able to secure investment for my venture thanks to a strong pitch and the support of a co-founder I met during the residency.
We’re making progress inevitable in the Brazilian early-stage
Fuelled by a passion that goes beyond traditional investing, we exist to increase our founders’ speed and maximize their success rate in solving important problems.
300+
Founders supported
110+
Teams supported
30+
Portfolio companies
FREQUENTLY —ASKED QUESTIONS
Antler is a global venture capital platform known for creating its own pipeline of investments. In order to back exceptional founders at the beginning of their journeys, Antler designed and launched its residency, where driven and resilient entrepreneurs can create their own startups with our day-zero support. The most promising startups that originated in the program can receive a pre-seed investment from Antler to scale their new businesses.
Antler’s residency is a 10-week entirely in-person immersion, where 60+ potential founders spend a lot of time together. It is a unique innovation environment with people that share the same objective of becoming a startup founder. This group of entrepreneurs will dive into our global methodology for business creation and validation, increase their professional network, and potentially receive a pre-seed investment during this period.
Most importantly, Antler is looking for talented, driven, and resilient people. Antler wants to back those that are willing to go the extra mile to create businesses capable of bringing progress and innovation to society. We are looking for individuals that are 100% certain of the decision of becoming a startup founder, even if they don’t have an idea for a business.
Each residency has a different profile picture of founders. However, Antler’s scouting team has an active effort of selecting a balanced set of exceptional professionals. Our main goal is to have all types of founders, including business operators, industry specialists, PhDs, and technology experts.
In Antler, selected founders don’t have to pay anything for applying and securing a slot in our residency. As the residency is entirely in-person, founders need to be in Sao Paulo for at least 10 weeks, if they want to participate in it. We are not responsible for affording accommodations, transportation, and other expenses for any of the selected founders. However, in specific cases, which are analyzed by the Antler team, we can concede grants covering some costs.
In our residency, after you formed a founding team and validated your business idea, you will have the chance to present your startup to our Investment Committee. If your business is approved by our Investment Committee, you will secure a pre-seed investment from Antler.
Our pre-seed investment is standardized for each residency. Therefore, every residency has its own size of check. The calculation of the valuation for every startup that originated in our program is based on macroeconomic conditions.
Apply now for Antler’s residency
Create the next big startup in Brazil with our day-zero support.
Meet our team
Marcelo was the founder and CEO of the credit fintech Lendico (www.lendico.com.br). He led the company through a full cycle of entrepreneurship: model creation, team building, product design, launch, scale up and a successful exit to Lonestar, when the company had +R$1billion in credit originations and 100+ employees. He has just returned from Stanford’s flagship senior executive program (SEP)
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20+ years experience in tech investing, business building and digital transformation projects. Operating Partner for Redpoint eventures, Intel Capital LATAM director for over a decade and Innovation Director of public traded companies. Recognised digital advisor and board member.
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Rafael was previously Head of Investors Relations and M&A of companies listed on the Brazilian Stock Exchange. Also worked as equities sales for banks in Brazil such as Merrill Lynch, Santander and Citibank and holds an MBA from Darden Business School. Father of Laura and Daniel.
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Highly accomplished, Result Driven, Hard worker, Ownership, Quick Learner, and ability to assume different responsibilities; Accounting and Financial Management with more than 15 years of progressive professional experiences: Banking, Big 4 Companies (M&A and audit), Venture capital, with a strong accounting background; Strong international experience, leading foreign teams and clients.
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Pedro Tucci is a venture capital professional with experience in early-stage investments, innovation, and business strategy. He began his career as an M&A lawyer at top Brazilian firms before moving into the startup ecosystem, working at Artemisia and later leading strategic roles at Dasa’s innovation arm and Y Combinator-backed Conta Simples. He holds a Law degree from the University of São Paulo and left Cornell’s MBA program to pursue hands-on experience in venture capital.
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Ester previously worked at a startup accelerator abroad and also at a Brazilian Venture Capital fund that invests only in international businesses. She graduated in Business Administration at the University of São Paulo (USP) and has also worked at Citibank and KPMG.
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Antler portfolio companies raise capital from other leading VCs
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