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Delayed by the disruption caused by the pandemic, global early-stage VC Antler, which entered the Indian market in June last year, is all set to fund its first batch of 8-10 early-stage start-ups. Antler had planned to invest in up to 40 start-ups within its first year of operations here.
“Our first Antler Founders Program Phase 1 for pre-seed stage start-ups that runs fully remotely for a duration of 6 weeks, started on March 15 and will end on May 1. At the end of that period, we will select 8-10 start-ups and write out a cheque for $175,000 at $1.75 million valuation for 10 per cent equity stake for each of the selected start-ups. Antler will be their first institutional cheque. We plan to announce the selected start-ups some time next month” Rajiv Srivatsa, Partner, Antler India, told BusinessLine .
Antler India received 2,000 applications for the 6-week programme from start-ups across sectors; shortlisted and talked to 500 applicants and conducted detailed interviews with 160 of them, finally selecting 21 start-ups for the programme. During the 6 weeks, the Antler team pulled on resources and expertise from across the world to enable founders to validate their business ideas and build strong teams. “Of these 21 start-ups, we plan to invest in 8-10 start-ups. Seventy per cent of these start-ups are building solutions for the world. Around 25 per cent of these start-ups are in the Edtech space, 25 per cent in healthtech, 30 per cent in SaaS and the rest are a mixed bunch. Ours is a sector agnostic programme,” said Srivatsa.
A stipend of ₹1,50,000 for the entire duration of six weeks is given to each of the 21 start-ups to ensure that founders with financial constraints can dedicate their energy to the program without any stress. Teams that receive funding from Antler India and enter the Founders Program will not receive any stipend after the initial six weeks.
Antler India plans to run 3-4 such virtual programmes every year and invest in 8-10 start-ups from each programme, investing in a total of 30-40 start-ups per annum. These funded start-ups will then go on to the second phase of the programme to build and scale their businesses.
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