Venture capital firm Antler has successfully raised $285 million for its Antler Elevate fund, which aims to provide scale-up capital to growth-stage startups. Antler has already invested over $70 million in 30+ companies through the Antler Elevate fund. These companies have received support from Antler’s early-stage funds, which span across more than 20 ecosystems, as stated in a blog post by the VC firm.
This fund will participate in Series A funding and beyond, supporting companies that have established a strong product-market fit and demonstrate compounding growth.
Martell Hardenberg, Partner at Antler, highlighted the significance of Antler Elevate, stating, “Antler Elevate is a natural progression for Antler as our portfolio expands. It enables us to offer continued support throughout the growth journey of exciting companies globally, extending our support beyond the Seed stage up to Series C.”
Further, Martell emphasized the importance of having a committed partner like Antler to provide the substantial capital that fast-growing businesses require.
Antler leverages its 25-office localised footprint and data-driven knowledge base to identify investment opportunities at scale. Founded in 2017, Antler is a global early-stage venture capital firm with a presence in 17 geographies. It has already seeded and invested in over 750 startups spanning various industries and technologies, with the ambitious goal of supporting more than 6,000 companies by 2030.
Antler Elevate fund has already invested more than $70 million in 30+ companies
In January 2022, the India division of Antler selected 19 student entrepreneurs for its inaugural Antler India Fellowship cohort, combining their proprietary day zero residency model with unique investing and operating insights. Teddy Himler, Partner at Antler, believes that their multi-stage platform will provide portfolio companies with a significant advantage across major technology ecosystems.
The Antler Elevate team’s deep vertical and operating expertise helps founders along their growth trajectory. Partner Martell Hardenberg exited Lazada to Alibaba and has grown the company from Pre-seed to unicorn status, which makes him an excellent sparring partner for fast-growing startups: Lazada, Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce player, sold to Alibaba Group in 2016, the Group’s largest transaction outside China.
Teddy Himler, previously VP at SoftBank and Principal at Comcast, has expertise in growth-stage investments with a focus on digital media, gaming, e-commerce, cloud computing, and mobility. Fady Abdel-Nour was the Global Head of M&A and investments at PayU, the payments and fintech arm of Prosus, a global technology-focused investment group known for its early investment into Tencent. The team taps into this wide knowledge base to offer strategic guidance to portfolio companies, elevating their prospects for success.
