Singapore-based early-stage venture capital firm Antler on Wednesday announced that it has invested in eight startups during its inaugural Berlin cohort. All eight companies address important challenges across sectors including fintech, healthtech, edtech, and SaaS.
With this, the firm looks to enable some of Germany’s most talented and experienced entrepreneurs to start new businesses and bring necessary innovations to Germany.
In November 2020, Antler reported that it will invest in more than 160 startups over the next four years across Central Europe.
Antler’s new investments
The company reviewed almost 1,500 applications from entrepreneurs to join the first Antler Berlin cohort that officially kicked off in April of this year. After hundreds of hours of interviews, it picked 60 founders who will join the first founder cohort in Berlin.
Alan Poensgen, Partner at Antler says, “We have worked very closely with these 60 founders as they were forming strong co-founding teams, validating their business ideas, and building early traction. After three intense months between April and June, we have invested in eight companies. I am personally very excited to see how far these companies have come with the incredibly hard work that the founders have put in over the past months as they were iterating on their first products, acquiring customers, and building their fast-growing teams.”
The eight Antler Berlin portfolio companies are:
- Clare&Me – healthtech – an automated AI-driven audio bot to counter mental illnesses such as anxiety and mild depression
- HeyLama – edtech – a language tutor marketplace that empowers the tutor-student relationship with technology tools to improve the language learning experience
- Insightful – edtech/entertainment, an app that combines acquiring knowledge and fun to bring learning to our daily routines
- Peccala – fintech – a crypto robo-advisor that allows retail investors to easily and effectively invest in cryptocurrencies
- Randevu – PaaS/B2B SaaS – a B2B, PaaS solution (low- code/ no-code) for building and running marketplaces and matching platforms, in an easy, lean, and cost-efficient way
- Rise – marketplace/fintech – a social token network to discover, meet, and invest in creators, creating a new asset class
- Tapline – fintech – a technology-based funding platform for subscription-based companies with recurring revenues as an alternative to traditional sources of financing
- Whoosh – fintech/food – an online ordering and paying platform (through a QR code) for dine-in restaurant guests helping restaurants save on waiting time, manpower, and transaction fees
After spending the last few months building their startups, the founders will now unveil their companies at Demo Day, pitching to a global audience of VCs, angel investors, entrepreneurs, and startup enthusiasts.
The event is hosted at the “Prince Charles” in Berlin, and online at the same time.
Sarah Finegan, Director at Antler says, “For the portfolio companies Demo Day is a great opportunity to leave stealth mode, present themselves to the broader ecosystem and gather interest from potential partners, early adopters as well as investors around the globe.”
Investing in the world’s most exceptional people
Founded in Singapore in 2017 by Magnus Grimeland and a team of experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and company builders, Antler is a global early-stage venture capital firm with the vision to fundamentally improve the world. It aims to create thousands of companies globally that solve real problems.
So far, Antler has invested in and helped build over 350 companies in 30 different sectors. Of these companies, 40 per cent have at least one female co-founder, and the founders represent 70 nationalities. The firm has offices globally across most major entrepreneurial hubs, including in London, Berlin, Stockholm, New York, Singapore, and Sydney.
According to the VC firm, entrepreneurs from DACH and Eastern Europe can apply twice a year to join Antler in Berlin. Selected founders will have the opportunity to find diverse and high-caliber co-founder(s), coaching by experienced entrepreneurs, and access to a global network of 600+ top-tier advisors. Besides, Antler also provides pre-seed investment to the best teams.
The next Berlin founder cohort starts on October 4.