Antler closes second Australian Fund, oversubscribed at $77M

SYDNEY, Australia—Global early-stage investor Antler has closed its second Australian fund, raising over $77M and surpassing its original $60M target. The Fund became oversubscribed in less than 12 months from launch, quicker than the typical 18 to 24 months for VC fundraising. This follows the firm’s first Australian Fund of $46 million raised in 2019, which was also oversubscribed.

The firm’s second Australian Fund will be used to invest in more than 100 new pre-seed startups in Australia, with over 40 companies already funded since May 2023 including Enaxiom, Altai, and Enrola. Of the funds raised, 32% came from existing LPs, demonstrating a vote of confidence from the investor community. Notable backers include Morrows and the Queensland Venture Capital Development Fund, managed by QIC. A portion of the funds has been sourced from Antler's Global Access Fund (GAF), designed to give investors access to a diversified portfolio of approximately 1,500 companies at inception-stage valuations. GAF allocates investments across 12 of Antler's regional funds, including the Australia Fund II.

Bede Moore, Chief Commercial Officer of Antler and founding partner at Antler Australia, says, "This milestone is a testament to the unique strength of Antler’s Day Zero investment approach and is consistent with the growth we have seen across our Early Stage Funds across the globe. 

“We are very pleased to be augmenting the continued support of our local LP base with an increasing pool of offshore institutional investors who recognise the health and opportunity of our local ecosystem. Australia Fund II represents a further advance for us locally and will allow us to provide deeper support to our founders from Day Zero to Series A”

Along with this new fund, Antler will introduce its new follow-on investment structure, ARC (Agreement for Rolling Capital) to its investments in Australia. The ARC instrument was originally developed in Antler’s New York office and is now being rolled-out systematically across the firm’s 27 locations. 

Under ARC, Antler will continue to invest an initial cheque of $225,000, but the ARC also guarantees Antler’s follow-on participation in the subsequent pre-seed round, where the firm will take up to one-third of the next round if the founder can secure at least $300,000 from sophisticated investors in their first 12 months. This agreement's approach has effectively increased the pace of securing early-stage capital while still managing the risk of investing in companies that may struggle to raise funds from other sources.

“Our data shows that companies which fail to raise capital within their first 12 months are unlikely to reach Series A,” says Moore. “However, across the 1300+ investments Antler has made globally since 2018, we’ve found that those that secure at least US$250k during that period have nearly a 50% chance of advancing to Series A. 

"We’ve designed the ARC instrument to be a key support for Antler founders as they scale to that stage, and we're excited to implement it across the Australian portfolio."

The new fund and investment structure enhances Antler’s ability to be a long-term funding partner for founders, supporting them with ongoing capital, co-founder matching, and growth resources. This enables founders to approach external investors with global VC backing and credibility.

In another positive signal, Antler has fast-tracked its plans to open its first Brisbane residency, moving the launch to February 2025 - one year ahead of the original schedule. The decision follows strong market interest and founder demand from the Queensland ecosystem. These residencies will aim to fund over 15 QLD-based startups in total and are backed by Queensland Venture Capital Development Fund, managed by QIC. This marks the third Australian location to launch in Antler’s global network of 27 cities.

Antler has partnered with more than 145 startups in Australia, with its sector-agnostic approach spanning industries like deep-tech, B2B SaaS, climate-tech, fintech and consumer-tech. The fund close also comes as companies invest from the firm's first local fund mature, notably Tactiq, Upcover, Sapyen, Reach Alts, and Sync Technologies with $160m raised in external capital across the portfolio.

- ENDS -