Antler Australia rings in the New Year welcoming 90 founders to build early-stage tech companies
Global early-stage VC Antler has kicked off 2022 by welcoming 90 Australian founders into its latest cohort to build the defining companies of tomorrow. With ambitions extending across SaaS, FinTech, AgTech, HealthTech and GreenTech, here’s what you need to know about this mix of aspiring and experienced entrepreneurs.
With their eyes set on solving some of the world’s biggest challenges by building new category defining companies, these ambitious individuals are embarking on their founder journey with Antler Australia to secure Pre-Seed investment.
From day one, the founders are immersed in Antler’s methodology of how teams are created and ideas validated. Then, once partnerships are formed and concepts are refined, Antler’s global network of advisors, investors and VC experts come to the forefront to guide on company creation and long term scaling.
Despite the uncertainties of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Antler’s platform has once-again adapted virtually leveraging the latest technology and productivity tools to provide founders with a seamless online experience.
These exceptional entrepreneurs were hand-picked from over 1,000 applications to disrupt industries and build the defining companies of tomorrow.
Antler Australia founders networking and hearing from Managing Partner, Bede Moore, in Sydney on December 9.
Antler Australia kicks off 2022 with 90 founders
The most successful founders are those uniquely positioned to solve specific problems. From fighter pilots to serial entrepreneurs, engineers, lawyers and more, this ambitious group of like minded individuals have the upper hand to solve some of the biggest challenges facing society. Let’s deep dive into their diverse backgrounds.
This is an entrepreneurial group with real-world experience:
🚀 62% previously worked in a startup
💡 50% previously started a startup
📈 16% exited a company as a founder or executive
💼 11+ years of average industry experience
🙋 48% are technical and industry experts
👩💻 42% have a commercial background
The founders join with a variety of skills and backgrounds:
🌍 62.5% hold non-Australian nationality
🎤 45% speak a language other than English
👩🎓 43% hold a Masters and 7% PhD
Meet the entrepreneurs behind Antler’s latest cohort
Grit, leadership and an “unfair advantage”, are the qualities that Antler looks for in founders. Embarking on their startup journey with Antler Australia, here are just a handful of extraordinary individuals ready to explore new opportunities and solve complex problems:
Serial entrepreneur with operational experience across APAC, Sylvia is passionate about helping female founders scale their businesses and grow professionally.
“I’m thrilled to be building my next company with Antler and dedicating myself to the mission of helping female entrepreneurs around the world thrive and move from chaos to calm and feeling isolated to supported.”
Environmental capitalist and ClimateTech founder, Mitchell is powering the transition to a climate positive future.
“I’m looking forward to working with equally ambitious entrepreneurs solving great problems by leveraging my experience in renewable energy, trading, climate tech and global markets.”
A licensed mental health counsellor and Managing Director, Jayta is driven to help combat mental health issues through nutritional psychology and lifestyle factors.
“My aim is to build a startup to provide precision nutrition to users based on their current mental health concerns whilst also providing psycho-education, resilience training, and inspiration.”
Robotics engineer and data-analytics enthusiast, Zac is focused on helping businesses and individuals access vast arrays of data to make informed decisions.
“From helping people discover local businesses, to searching the web efficiently and helping solve medical challenges, currently data can be difficult to access and visualise. I can’t wait to help transform the way that we interact with data on a daily basis.”
Formation & validation: How Antler works with these entrepreneurs in the earliest stages
Antler invests in ambitious founding teams with a unique advantage striving to solve a particular problem. Upon joining the Antler platform, founders network at a rapid pace to discover like minded individuals with complementary skill sets to build their startup with. During this time, they also undertake design sprint sessions to stress-test their ideas and start striving towards product-market-fit.
The focus then shifts to teams preparing for Antler’s Investment Committee to pitch for Pre-Seed funding. Those who are successful receive the investment and become Antler portfolio companies.
This unlocks Antler’s biggest value add to founders as here the fundraising power to unlock investor introductions to Series A and beyond, both locally and globally, kicks in. More than 80% of Antler companies receive follow-on capital within 12 months of the initial investment. This comes from angel investors through to tier one VCs and institutional investors.
Additionally, as Antler is the only true global VC operating from Australia, this international infrastructure comes into play for further fundraising opportunities and business partnerships for the startups to gain access to new markets. Companies also receive continued coaching plus public relations and hiring support.
To date, Antler Australia has invested in more than 60 early-stage startups via its Sydney and Melbourne locations, this includes 18 investments in the second half of last year alone. The early-stage VC is on track to make over 100 investments from its AU$46m Fund 1, this includes investment opportunities extended to successful founders in this latest cohort. See Antler’s local and global portfolio here.
Antler Australia is now accepting applications for its next intake, supporting individuals or teams looking for an additional co-founder, as well as Pre-Seed investment. The next dates for the new rolling intakes are: February 28, May 9, July 18, September 26.
Antler Australia also seeks to fund existing businesses. These are defined as an incorporated company, with a complete co-founder team, and product in market or compelling protected IP. Companies can apply to participate in a 5-week diligence process prior to an investment decision, success participants from this stream also become Antler portfolio companies and receive Antler’s platform support in fundraising and global expansion. Upcoming company intake dates are: February 21, April 4, May 9, June 13, July 18, August 22, September 26, October 31.
Adele Moynihan is an Associate Partner with Antler Australia. She has been with Antler since its inception in Australia and leads the delivery of the fund’s core products and contributes to capital raising.
