Private Equity International names Ros Bazany as Woman of Influence 2024

In this episode, we speak to Anurag Srivastava, serial entrepreneur and founding partner of Jungle Ventures, Southeast Asia's largest independent venture capital firm. Over the last two decades, Anurag has played a crucial role in building and scaling companies in the tech and startup ecosystem Globally. Some of the companies in Jungle's portfolio include hotel booking platform, RedDoorz; cloud-based software provider, Deskera; interior home design platform, Livspace, and Thai fashion e-commerce startup, Pomelo Fashion.

In this episode we speak to Nir Eyal, a lecturer, consultant, and best-selling author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, and Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life. Nir Eyal writes, consults, and teaches Behavioral Design, which is an intersection of psychology, technology, and business. He is also an active investor in habit-forming technology companies. Some of his recent investments include Kahoot!, Eventbrite, Anchor.fm, and Product Hunt. In our latest episode, Nir talks about his "Hook Model" to increase customer engagement, the internal trigger required to make your product a habitual one and how to plan your time to get the most of it without getting distracted.

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We're delighted to welcome to the Antler advisory board, James Anderson, co-manager of the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust at Baillie Gifford.

For many years, James has been at the forefront of investing in how economies have been shifting from being governed by the principles of diminishing to increasing returns, embodied in particular by technology companies, and the tremendous, non-linear opportunities this brings.

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.

In this episode, we speak to Helen Wong, a partner at Qiming Venture Partners, about the fascination with social commerce, different cultural mindsets of founders, and the differences in China and Southeast Asia's tech ecosystems. Helen is a veteran in the VC industry, ranked among the top 100 VCs and top 25 female VCs in China in 2018 by Forbes. She has led investments into Akulaku, a new Southeast Asia finance platform, and Jingling Group, a Chinese social E-commerce platform, and was also involved in the investment into Alibaba.  

Due to the growing interest in responsible investment and therefore from VCs, the industry will need to become familiar with the concept of ESG. ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance which are a set of criteria used to measure an investment’s sustainability and societal impact.

Here at Antler, we are on a mission to fundamentally improve the world by enabling the world's most exceptional people to build the sector-defining companies of tomorrow. Here is our take on ESG from the VC perspective.

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When it comes to choosing investors, it depends on the stage of growth you are in, and on how much you want to raise. Find out what are the key considerations and benefits of reaching out to each type of investor.

This article is a 4th part of the "Startup fundraising 101" series - a  resource that has been created in order to help all founders in their fundraising journey. To learn more, read our previous pieces which are linked at the end of this article.

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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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In this episode, we speak to Hande Cilingir, co-founder and CEO of Insider, an integrated growth management platform that is changing the game for e-commerce businesses globally. Backed by investors such as Riverwood Capital, Sequoia, Wamda and Endeavor Catalyst, Insider is helping over 800 global brands drive their digital growth through highly individualized multichannel experiences powered by AI.

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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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In this episode, we speak to Eilert Hanoa, the CEO of Kahoot!, the game-based learning platform that has taken the world by storm. As Norway's first and only unicorn, the company aims to make education more effective and accessible Globally. With the current remote learning and working situation, Kahoot!'s user base has been boosted to more than one billion active players annually.

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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In this episode, we speak to Rajiv Srivatsa, co-founder of Urban Ladder, an online furniture company that raised over 100 million dollars in venture capital from Indian and international investors such as Ratan Tata and Sequoia Capital. Prior to starting Urban Ladder in 2012, Rajiv spent over a decade working with a number of multinational corporations, including Infosys, Cognizant, and Yahoo. Currently, Rajiv is the country head and a Partner in India for Antler.

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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In this episode, we have with us Aditi Avasthi, Founder and CEO of Indian headquartered EdTech company Embibe. Embibe is an AI platform that is personalising the delivery of education in emerging markets. It uses AI and analytics to carve out learning programs for students and has raised over $190 million since its launch in 2012. Investors include Kalaari Capital, Lightbox Ventures, and Reliance.

Chris Fanucchi is no stranger to traveling for work. As the co-founder of beverage companies KOIA, a plant protein drink now available at Whole Foods nationwide, and Limitless, a lightly caffeinated sparkling water acquired by Keurig Dr. Pepper in January 2020, Chris spent years traveling the country as he built two successful businesses from scratch. But Chris encountered a persistent problem as he traversed state lines: he constantly struggled to maintain healthy eating.

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What does it take to start a business during a pandemic and how do you adapt? Some of the founders from our new companies in the fourth Singapore cohort share their experiences ahead of Antler Southeast Asia’s first virtual Demo Day on July 16 at 5pm SGT.

Fundraising is not an easy walk in the park, it will be challenging. It always  takes longer than you think and has more ups and downs than you'd expect. Go into the process with an attitude that "you'll be successful". You need to commit to this process, even though it can be unpredictable and messy.

After attracting 2,800 registrations for the event a whopping 2,000 people watched the live event.

This fireside chat with Rajesh Lingappa, former CTO and co-founder of RedMart was conducted by Bjorn Lindfors, Technology Partner of Antler Southeast Asia during the Antler Entrepreneurship Hour in June.

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We invited four experienced CTOs to discuss how to build a successful tech platform, the process behind establishing a startup and some of the key things to consider when you are just starting to build the tech behind your product/service. They discuss key questions such as why is speed important and what to prioritise between your product vision and customer validation.

Now that the majority of the companies have seen that there is a way to work remotely, it looks like remote working is here to stay for a while longer at least and that more and more companies are going down this path even after the pandemic. We have listed some tools and services that startups and VCs we know recommended.

Antler Sydney Venture Partner Christian Wanner explores what is Demo Day and why it is important for founders, investors and the wider community.

Antler Australia received 1,400 applications in total, and spent 618 hours interviewing to identify and select this cohort - the largest to date, up 20% from the previous Sydney cohort of 80.

Launching your own business can be daunting. Launching your own business during a pandemic can seem downright impossible.

But with the help of Antler Australia, 26 entrepreneurs launched 12 startups spanning FinTech to Saas, HealthTech, DeepTech and more, and are flourishing in their early stages of growth.

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12 early-stage powerhouse tech companies will be revealed. Join us and help chart the path to recovery for the tech startup ecosystem.

This story is covered by Business Standard, Hindu Business Line, Economic Times, Business Insider, Business World, Outlook, Mint, YourStory, VC Circle and Tech in Asia.

Antler announced plans to launch in India to enable more entrepreneurs to build startups through their platform, support and global reach. The local operation will start in Bangalore and be led by Rajiv Srivatsa, co-founder of Urban Ladder, who is joining as Partner.

Antler is thrilled to announce a collaboration with global investment firm B Capital Group, founded by Eduardo Saverin and Raj Ganguly. The agreement allows our companies to join forces across multiple functions, leveraging the six continents and major technology ecosystems our global funds operate in.

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“Out of every crisis, voices emerge from unlikely places to help us understand how we can build a better future” - Scott Galloway. In this opinion piece, Antti Rantanen, Venture Partner at Antler, draws inspiration from this quote and reflects on how tech collaboration between startups and giants will breed new innovative models of operation in the near future.

In this episode of the Antler VC Cast, we have with us Patrick Lee, the co-founder of Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes has been around for over 20 years and is the entertainment website focused on movie reviews and news. Patrick is also a serial entrepreneur who has started six startups across the US, China and Hong Kong. His companies are largely focused on the technology and entertainment space, targeting consumers. He is very active in the startup ecosystem supporting and advising founders and startups.

Having a strong co-founding team is an important success factor for startups. In fact having the wrong founding team is amongst the top reasons why companies fail. Read more about how to build a strong team.

Without a strong team, the idea will just stay as that, an idea. However, finding the right co-founder can seem like a long and complicated process. There are many things that entrepreneurs need to take into consideration when making the decision of who to start a company with; starting with what to look for in terms of skillsets, compatibility and personality, followed by where to meet available co-founders, to making sure it will last in the long run. Based on our experience, there are 5 important elements that make a strong co-founding team. But before you start searching for someone, you need to ask yourself some key questions.

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Meet the Yayloh team! Nikhil Shikarkhane, CTO and co-founder, is a full-stack engineer and deep learning specialist as well as a serial entrepreneur. At Antler, he met his co-founder and CEO Sophie Aubard, who had the same entrepreneurial mindset but who could complement his skills well with deep knowledge about how to run and scale big businesses after having worked for big malls in the retail space.

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At Antler, we often get asked how we invest in startups. We believe that  startups belong in five different "archetypes" and we try to help our  founders frame their companies and ideas around these archetypes. This, in  turn, shall help them create a strong, compelling Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy  that will help them win in their respective spaces and selected  industries.So what are the five archetypes and how do they differ?

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In this episode of the Antler VC Cast, we speak to Abheek Anand, Managing Director of Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm that has backed companies like Apple, Google, Dropbox, Airbnb, Whatsapp and Zomato. Abheek is an active and known Venture Capitalist and shares some sharp insights on navigating the current climate as an investor and founder.

Antler Global Partner Andreas Birnik shares his tips for navigating through a turbulent time to successfully innovate.

The Covid-19 epidemic is now a Global issue and everyone is affected one way or the other. As most of us are remote working and in-person events are on hold, we want to continue to share some of the insights and sessions that we usually do for our founders with the wider startup ecosystem so that we can help and support entrepreneurs around the world.

Being a startup founder can be difficult at the best of times. Adding the stress and impact of a pandemic, crisis or recession, especially now, with the human tragedy of the Covid-19 doesn’t make it easier.

There several ways in which entrepreneurs build their businesses and in recent years, quite a few startup ecosystem players have entered the journey in order to support Entrepreneurs in their endeavor. Antler, a startup generator and early-stage VC has brought a unique approach for aspiring entrepreneurs by creating a program that allows them to find their co-founding team, define their business idea and an opportunity to receive an investment all in 11 weeks. Check out the feature on #BBC Africa as we welcome our second cohort of the Nairobi program to #buildnextwaveoftech in the next 11 weeks.

Women make up 50% of the population but only 11% of capital is invested in female-led companies, even though data shows that diverse teams perform better. Antler wants to enable more women to launch and lead companies. Click to read the startup stories of 5 female founders and why they decided to become entrepreneurs.

There has never been a better time to start a technology-enabled business, given how much low-cost and high-quality existing tech infrastructure can be used, the digital business opportunity in Southeast Asia with exponential growth in smartphone usage and most importantly, localised problems that need to be solved in many parts of this region on a large scale.

Whoever said Science was organized knowledge most likely had a point. What is less organized is the immense volume of research that is annually conducted. 2.3 trillion US Dollars are spent globally on Research and Development in 2019. More shockingly, it still takes pharmaceuticals approximately 15 years to bring a drug to the market - despite the given funds. What if we told you there was a way to reduce not just costs but also time by up to 25%?

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