Phoenix Group’s With-Profits Funds take GP Equity Stake in Global Early-Stage Investor Antler
London—Nov 10 2023: Phoenix Group, the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement business, has acquired a minority equity stake in Antler, the most active venture capital investor globally, on behalf of its With-Profits Funds. The investment will allow Phoenix to invest alongside Antler on behalf of its With-Profits customers, enabling direct access to the investment potential of the early-stage market.
Antler systematically removes capital and network constraints for early-stage technology entrepreneurs by providing investments, co-founder matching, and extensive coaching.
Operating out of 27 locations globally, the firm is seeing increasing demand from entrepreneurs for its offering, driven by the trend in global innovation, and will make 400+ investments in 2023.
Antler’s proprietary ESG and Impact framework recognizes the importance of impact as well as returns. Antler is a UN PRI signatory and a member of VentureESG and ImpactVC.
Edward Knight, President at Antler, said:
“Support at the earliest stages of company creation has the potential to dramatically accelerate the pace of innovation - so important to the dynamism of modern economies. Venture is an emerging global asset class appealing to a growing group of institutional investors, keen to better understand the risks of disruption and capture the returns available. We’re delighted to partner with Phoenix, an early mover in supporting innovation and the growth opportunities this provides."
James Mitchell, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Phoenix Group, commented:
“We are delighted to announce this investment into Antler on behalf of our with-profits funds. We believe investment in diversified venture capital portfolios are crucial to enabling long-term savers to unlock diversified portfolio returns. Antler is a clearly differentiated example of this asset type and this investment will give our With-Profits policyholders’ funds exposure to some of the most exciting start-ups in the UK and globally, many of which aim to address some of the biggest issues we face as a society, such as the climate challenge.
“We are very much looking forward to working with the Antler team for the benefit of our customers. “
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About
Antler is the most active early-stage investor 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 27 cities across most leading technology ecosystems globally and has made over 1,300 investments into early-stage startups.
Contact
Rike Döpp Bergérus
VP, Global Communications
rike at antler.co
https://wa.me/0046706313538
Enquiries for Phoenix
Dilesh Sangaran
PR Manager
Phoenix Group
Dilesh.Sangaran@thephoenixgroup.com
07974 604 323
About Phoenix Group
Phoenix Group is the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement business with £259 billion of assets under administration.
As life expectancy continues to increase and the pension landscape continues to shift, we offer our 12 million customers a broad range of pensions, savings and life insurance products across our family of brands which include Standard Life, SunLife, Phoenix Life and ReAssure. Our vision is to help even more people on their journey to and through retirement, providing the right support at the right time.
We are a growing and sustainable business united by a common purpose – helping people secure a life of possibilities. This drives everything we do and means taking responsible and sustainable investment decisions, and using our presence and voice to drive forward change for the better, for our customers, our colleagues, and our wider community.
A FTSE 100 company, we also feature in the FTSE 100 ESG Select Index series and we are playing an active role in helping to invest in a sustainable future. As part of this, we have committed to our operations being net zero carbon by 2025 and for our investment portfolios we have set an interim target of a 50% reduction in the carbon emission intensity of c£250bn by 2030, as we progress towards our portfolios being net zero carbon by 2050 or sooner.
We have been recognised as a leading employer for many years. We are accredited as a Living Wage Employer, Living Pension Employer and as a Carer Positive Exemplary Employer for offering the best support to colleagues who are carers.
