Antler strengthens Global leadership team with two appointments

London, 08/15/2019: The early-stage investor Antler announced today that former Goldman Sachs partner Edward Knight and Anette Wilson, former member of the Board of the British Venture Capital Association, joined the firm as Global Partners.

"We are delighted that Edward Knight and Annette Wilson will join our leadership team led by Magnus Grimeland, our CEO and founder. So far, 2019 has been an exceptional year for Antler. We have grown our presence from our founding location in Singapore by opening seven new offices in London, Sydney, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Oslo, Nairobi, and New York. Our global reach, the innovative companies we have helped found, and the expertise of our team means we attract some of the brightest individuals in the industry, including Annette and Edward. We look forward to them becoming part of the Antler family and benefiting from their wealth of experience to help us achieve our ambitions," said Magnus Grimeland, founder and CEO.

Knight and Wilson each bring significant experience to Antler:

Edward Knight has had a multi-decade career as a leader in European banking, most recently working at Goldman Sachs for nearly fifteen years where he was a partner in the equities division before retiring at the end of 2018. Prior to this, he was an Executive Director at Citigroup Global Markets for nearly a decade. Edward's passion at Goldman Sachs was people and culture, where he was a co-sponsor of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Network in Europe.

Annette Wilson has spent the last twenty years in leadership roles in growth and venture capital firms focused on scaling businesses across geographies. She was the founding CFO of European growth investor Palamon Capital Partners, where she took the firm's funds under management to €1.3bn. Most recently, she was Partner and COO at Finch Capital, a fintech investor, where she focused on Europe and Southeast Asia. Annette trained as a chartered accountant and held senior roles in the insurance industry. She currently serves on the Venture Council of Invest Europe and is a former member of the Board of the British Venture Capital Association.

"I'm excited to join Antler's global team and share my knowledge and experience to help build the next generation of innovative tech startups across the world," said Edward Knight, Global Partner and Board Member of Antler.

Antler runs a startup program for entrepreneurs, which turns exceptional individuals into great founders of innovative businesses. Since its launch in 2018, Antler has selected over 650 entrepreneurs for its program to become startup founders.

"I am delighted to be joining the Antler team. The program is impressive with its focus on building strong founding teams coupled with harnessing tech innovation to build successful businesses. I look forward to being part of the global Antler team and contributing to the European expansion of Antler, especially as we see an increasing number of highly innovative startups emerging across Europe and the European VC industry achieving excellent returns," said Annette Wilson who will take the role as Advisor and European Chair of Antler.

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Antler is one of the most active early-stage investors globally.

The firm leads in ‘Day Zero’ investing, an approach to venture capital focused on partnering with founders pre-launch. Antler systematically removes capital and network constraints for early-stage technology entrepreneurs by providing co-founder matching, deep business model validation, initial capital, expansion support, and follow-on funding.

The firm is present in 30 cities across most leading technology ecosystems globally and has made over 1,000 investments into early-stage startups, with the goal of backing more than 6,000 by 2030.

Antler has been repeatedly recognized by Pitchbook as the world’s most active angel and seed-stage investor.

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Contact

Rike Döpp Bergérus

VP, PR and Communications
rike at antler.co