Antler, a Singapore-based enterprise capital agency specializing in early-stage investments, has simply closed its second Southeast Asia fund. The corporate has raised $72 million to double down on investments in startups in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia.
For startups, this needs to be welcome information. Like different areas, Southeast Asia faces an ongoing decline in financing. Between January and July 2024, Southeast Asian know-how corporations raised US$2.31 billion by 328 rounds of fairness financing. In contrast with the identical interval final yr, the entire quantity of 426 rounds of financing was US$7.63 billion, a lower of 69.69%.
However Jussi Salovaara – co-founder and managing companion of Antler, who leads the agency’s investments and operations in Southeast Asia and the broader Asia-Pacific area – believes now could be one of the best time to speculate early.
“There is no such thing as a doubt that it is a problem for each startups and traders. Nonetheless, this setting supplies distinctive alternatives for early-stage funding,” Sarovara stated in an interview with TechCrunch. “Throughout good instances, markets are likely to grow to be saturated as startups compete for consideration and funding, resulting in inflated valuations and a concentrate on fast progress over sustainable enterprise fashions. In distinction, the present financial downturn Weaker gamers will probably be filtered out, permitting really modern and resilient start-ups to emerge and be funded.
For Antler, this implies figuring out and supporting founders who’re “dedicated to long-term progress and have a transparent understanding of their market,” he stated. “On this setting, early-stage investing is more likely to concentrate on corporations with strong fundamentals, clear paths to profitability and prudent money administration, slightly than these pursuing a fast exit.” This in itself may recommend that when markets are extra bullish, priorities might What is going to or not it’s.
Antler SEA Fund II will concentrate on the pre-launch, pre-seed and seed funding phases. The enterprise capital agency plans to allocate $27 million in funding to 45 early-stage startups over six to 9 months. It additionally plans to put money into about 300 new startups by its second SEA fund. A part of the funding will help startups created in the course of the Antler residency program.
The corporate finds that Southeast Asia is a extremely built-in and intensely various market, with every nation providing distinctive alternatives.
When Antler arrange its first Southeast Asia fund in 2018, it had solely a Singapore crew. The largest lesson from the primary Southeast Asia fund is that it took a really native method. It goals to carve out a distinct segment out there by working carefully with the crew and founders. Salovaara talked about that Antler has a minimum of one companion in each Southeast Asian nation who will assist deploy SEA Fund II funds.
Antler’s SEA Fund II is industry-agnostic. Nonetheless, it sees enormous potential for fintech and well being startups within the area as they handle vital wants in quickly rising economies. Synthetic intelligence is a know-how that it’s already actively investing in, particularly non-general vertical synthetic intelligence companies that may clear up issues in native markets.
About 65% of the area’s inhabitants is anticipated to be center class by 2030, with 60% of the inhabitants below the age of 35, each components driving excessive demand for consumer-focused know-how and progress within the B2B {industry} . Indonesia is probably the most populous nation and gives a very giant marketplace for shopper know-how on account of its younger inhabitants. Sarovara stated Vietnam is changing into a high-tech manufacturing and gaming hub, pushed by a extremely expert and well-educated workforce.
Along with early-stage investments, the enterprise capital agency will make investments as much as $10 million in Collection A growth-stage startups by its new progress fund, Antler Elevate. Antler additionally launched ARC (Rolling Capital Settlement). This funding construction helps founders transfer from the early development part into the expansion part by offering as much as $600,000 in rolling capital in the course of the first six to 9 months of the corporate’s life.
The VC stated greater than 50% of Fund II got here from institutional traders, together with a sovereign wealth fund, a pension fund and college endowments. Antler didn’t disclose the names of the restricted companions however confirmed that a lot of the institutional traders are based mostly in Singapore.
VC has invested by Fund Two: Meals provide chain platform Farmio; Zora Well being, a startup offering fertility, reproductive and household well being companies; and Clout Kitchen, a Gen Z advertising and marketing startup.
Along with specializing in Southeast Asia, the enterprise capital has workplaces in additional than 30 cities around the globe, greater than 20 regional funds, and funds in India, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand/Australia and different locations within the Asia-Pacific area. Salovaara identified that Antler didn’t disclose the AUM of Antler International, however the AUM of the Asia-Pacific fund is US$200 million, and the mixed AUM of the primary and second Southeast Asian funds is roughly US$100 million.
The most recent fund is thrice the scale of its earlier fund, SEA Fund I, which was roughly $20 million in dimension. It has invested in 91 corporations, together with e-SIM market Airalo; Reebelo, a market promoting refurbished and new electronics corresponding to laptops, iPads, home equipment and energy instruments; Bluesheets, a startup creating Synthetic intelligence software program is used to assist corporations automate their bookkeeping processes.
