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If you are building a global technology company with real ambition and the stamina to move fast, you need to be in this room.

That tension was at the heart of a panel hosted by Antler Japan Senior Director Florian Geier at YOKOHAMA CONNÉCT, where Fuminori Gunji, Head of GTM at ZooKeep, and Paul McMahon, Representative Director of TokyoDev, joined a room of founders and operators to unpack what it really takes to build global teams from Japan. The conversation was grounded in something rare in startup discourse: actual data.

Automating accreditation workflows with AI, Novana turns school quality assurance from a manual compliance burden into a continuous, data-driven improvement system.

A physician-first approach to clinical AI, grounded in transparency, trust, and real-world practice in Japan.

Applications for the Antler Disrupt: Spring 2026 sprint are now open. If you're building emerging technologies and ready to scale globally, this is your moment.

Antler Singapore today announced improved investment terms and a revamped 6-week residency for founders building global software companies with strong execution and a global mindset. Founders can now access up to $400,000 from inception, with a $150,000 net funding as the first ticket.

We believe in transparency. Here's the full breakdown of the Antler Disrupt investment: how it works, what you get, and what happens at IC.

AI is moving faster than any technology before it. The window to establish category leadership is measured in months, not years. For founders who already have a working product and early validation, the challenge isn't just building technical products anymore, it's scaling further, faster.

Meet Kaiwen Li and Alima Strickland, the award-winning producer duo behind ChatCut, an AI-powered post-production tool designed to revolutionize the way creators edit dialogue-heavy videos quickly and efficiently.

Protecting batteries, enhancing resale value and expanding financial opportunities for EV owners.

Meet Shwen Ho, CEO of Sinhke, an AI-powered platform transforming shrimp farming by automating health assessments, reducing losses, and helping farmers optimize production.

At our recent Theory of Next event in Ho Chi Minh City, a packed room of founders, operators, and investors came together around one big question: Can Vietnam leapfrog traditional tech hubs—and if so, how?

Meet Thanyalat Chaleunsouk, the CEO of Yoosay, a Southeast Asia-based platform that empowers F&B vendors to optimize order management, streamline operations, and boost their growth with data-driven insights through their direct-to-consumer platform.

Meet the co-founder of Vucar, the AI-driven platform transforming car transactions in Vietnam with cutting-edge technology, transparency, and innovation.

Southeast Asia represents one of the world's most dynamic and complex markets, with over 700 million people spread across eleven countries, each with distinct regulatory environments, cultural nuances, and varying stages of digital maturity. For founders building in this region, traditional approaches to market sizing often fall short of capturing the true complexity and opportunity of the market. Learn how to size your market accurately in this region with this comprehensive guide to TAM, SAM & SOM calculations.

Antler recently announced a new initiative based out of Vietnam, showcasing its continued commitment to backing exceptional founders in Southeast Asia despite challenging market conditions.

Three founders share their recent experiences attending the showcase for the first time

Navigating the Path from Entrepreneurship to New Professional Horizons

Learning from the experiences of startup founders within the Antler community in Indonesia.

2024年3月13日、Antler Japan初となる『Antler Japan DEMO DAY 2024』を開催しました。会場には国内外の起業家、ベンチャーキャピタル、CVC、個人投資家、Antler Cohort Programの第1期生・第2期生、スタートアップエコシステムを支える人々にご来場いただき、大きなセミナールームは立ち見が出るほどの盛況ぶりとなりました。Antler Cohort Programを通じて共同創業者を得て創業し、出資を受けたポートフォリオ企業5社のご紹介、そして当日のピッチセッションの様子をお届けします。

Notably, there's a surge in vertical AI startups in Indonesia, supported by the emergence of genAI technologies like ChatGPT

Unveiling the Transformation: Navigating Challenges and Shifting Narratives in the Startup Landscape

As part of a $5.1M pre-seed round for 37 startups across Southeast Asia, this marks the highest number of pre-seed deals completed in a single round in the region.

As part of a $5.1M pre-seed round for 37 startups across Southeast Asia, this marks the highest number of pre-seed deals completed in a single round in the region.

As part of a $5.1M pre-seed round for 37 startups across Southeast Asia, this marks the highest number of pre-seed deals completed in a single round in the region.

As part of a $5.1M pre-seed round for 37 startups across Southeast Asia, this marks the highest number of pre-seed deals completed in a single round in the region.

This marks the highest number of pre-seed deals completed in a single round in the region.

A photo journal: A founder’s residency journey in Singapore

Whether you are a solo founder or an early team, being surrounded by other exceptional people—all fully committed to building game-changing startups—raises your game, sharpens your vision, and helps you go further, faster.

Get your startup launched and funded with Antler in Indonesia

「他の人たちと比べたら、あまり参考にはならないかもしれませんが...」そう言って笑う米一さんと星野さん。Antler起業支援プログラムに参加してプロダクトを立ち上げたものの、わずか一カ月間で撤退を決断。現在はチームも解散し、それぞれ別の道で再起を目指している。しかし、それでも笑顔で「参加してよかった」と言い合う2人。どんな思いでAntler起業支援プログラムに参加し、何を経験したのだろうか。

常識を疑い、業界の『ペイン』が事業の核に。医薬品の流通管理業務における「手作業」のDX化サービス『Yap-BPO』（ヤップ・ビーピーオー）を提供するYap株式会社 CEOの山本正也氏さんの創業までのStory

子連れにいい場所をMAP上で発見でき、ユーザーが発見した情報のシェアもできるおでかけマップアプリ「iiba」を手掛けるペアレントテックスタートアップの株式会社iiba。CEOの逢澤奈菜が語る創業までのStory

Are you an early-stage B2B SaaS startup? Avoid leaving money on the table, confusing your product roadmap, and other pitfalls that could hamper your growth. Discover actionable strategies for five of the most common mistakes and how to navigate these challenges effectively.

It all starts with people. The relationships underlying your company can make or break your startup's success. Finding co-founders with a complementary skill set is important—but it’s not the only thing founders need to look for to build a winning team.

James McClure, a Partner at Antler in Australia, delves into seven ways startups can grow their D2C demand without needing to generate it through paid platforms like Google, Meta, or Amazon.

Antler is thrilled to announce our launch in Malaysia, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur and in partnership with Khazanah.

“Holidays are a way for you to enrich your own life. It's about going out and experiencing things that you otherwise wouldn't experience in your everyday life, trying new food, meeting new people, and just learning more about the world in a first-hand way.” —Sarah Hilmy, co-founder of travel platform Oddysee.

The following is a transcript of an interview between the co-founders of Faba and Antler. It has been slightly edited for clarity and length.

An interview with Austin Chaird, Chief product and technology officer at Alpha Impact

Businesses need financial help — badly. That’s the core of what Rajith Shaji and I were trying to address when we founded our expense management platform — Volopay — in 2019. What started with the intent to help Singaporean businesses manage their money better, has now turned into a service scaled across the APAC region.

Several years ago, one afternoon in Hanoi city center, I sat on the terrace in a cafe, watching people pass by with their various activities. A city bus passed, and I want to try it on but I couldn’t understand all the information on the bus. It was written in the Vietnamese alphabet. I finished my coffee quickly and ordered a taxi through a costly ride-hailing app as I had no other choice because I didn’t want to gamble by renting a motorbike there.

A longread about the road to founding a company and finding the ultimate problem to work on, by Jeffrey Duyvesteijn, co-founder and CEO of For Youth.

As the world screeched to a standstill in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, few sectors were hit as hard as the travel industry. Globally, international arrivals dropped to 381 million in 2020, down from 1.461 billion in 2019 — a 74% decline. According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the crisis put between 100 and 120 million direct tourism jobs at risk. As lockdowns fell into place worldwide, investors and entrepreneurs in the TravelTech sector switched to “survival mode”. Yet in the midst of it all, Airalo persisted.

Rajith has the natural gift of making people feel at ease. But we’re not going to lie; this conversation was different. To make it happen, we stretched over three continents: North America, Europe, and Asia. While it was late at night in Vancouver, it was early morning in Rotterdam and noon in Singapore. However, Rajith injected the conversation with good vibes from the first second, making us feel awake and inspired. It was the perfect way to start and end our day!

The founders series takes a deep dive into the journey of Antler portfolio company founders and sheds light on the space they are building in. This week, we spoke to Zabrina Chew, Co-Founder and CEO of Soda. Soda is a social discovery platform to help millennial professionals find and engage with relevant and trusted communities around them easily. Soda is building the future of discovery, co-creation, and collaboration, bringing its community together through streamlined content and small, intimate gatherings.

The founders series takes a deep dive into the journey of Antler portfolio company founders and sheds light on the space they are building in. This week, we spoke to Shubham Gupta, Co-Founder of Ivory. Ivory is an employee engagement platform that harnesses anonymity to create transparency, empower collaboration and capture unheard risks.

The founders series takes a deep dive into the journey of Antler portfolio company founders and sheds light on the space they are building in. This week, we spoke to Josie Stoker, co-Founder of Capture. She and her co-founder Aziz Abdul have built an app to track carbon emissions. Capture is a digital platform enabling organisations to mobilise one of their greatest assets in the fight for a sustainable future - their workforce. Through their app, integrations and dashboard, they run planet-friendly challenges and help companies live-monitor their CO2 savings.

The founders series takes a deep dive into the journey of Antler portfolio company founders and sheds light on the space they are building in. This week, we spoke to Arun Sugumaran, co-Founder and CEO of ArtWallSt. ArtWallSt is a global exchange for art where anyone can become collectors, exhibitors and investors. In addition to bringing art closer to people through everyday physical spaces, the startup is currently developing a platform where blockchain-authenticated physical artworks can be traded on the platform.

I've been an active angel investor for about ten years now. Since we started Antler back in 2018 I've been part of many of our investment committees (IC) around the world. Every IC member and angel investor is different and will have different views on what makes a good investment. For me, there are three specific things I focus on when a team pitches to Antler for investment: The people, the product, and, of course, the potential.

The founders series takes a deep dive into the journey of Antler portfolio company founders and sheds light on the space they are building in. This week, we spoke to Sophie Jokelson, co-founder and CMO of Cove. Cove is a coliving company putting renters first. They make it easier, faster and more flexible to rent comfortable homes at honest prices. Their flatshare rooms, studios and apartments are hand-picked in top city locations, thoughtfully furnished and include utilities. The bookings process is digital and hassle-free, and the community of 'Coveys' get access to a network of like-minded people as well as exclusive events and perks.

Welcome to Antler's circles series, where we bring industry leaders, founders, and experts working in the same sector together to problem solve, share emerging trends and technologies. Through this series, Antler will provide unparalleled access to closed room discussions around the challenges and opportunities experienced by those innovating at the forefront of the industry.

The step from software engineer or senior architect to CTO can feel like a quantum leap. Knowing when to make the transition, and how, is often a barrier that prevents people from taking the leap sooner. With that in mind, Antler recently hosted a CTO panel to share first-hand advice of those who have done it, with those who are aspiring to get there.

Our team of venture capitalists, domain experts and entrepreneurs at Antler are always on the lookout for exceptional talent with the potential to build the defining companies of tomorrow. Read on to find out what we look for in a successful founder and how you can kickstart your entrepreneurial journey.

Working in venture capital offers insights into the problems, challenges, and new markets today’s entrepreneurs are addressing at the very earliest opportunity, a window on disruption and innovation. Business models are being redefined at an ever-quickening pace, and this is particularly visible in FinTech. We recently sat down with the founders of all of our FinTech investments with the following key learnings and insights.

Wisnu is one of the humblest of our visionaries. During our conversation, he never mentioned that he just raised $5 million or that his tools were used by 850,000 workers across Indonesia. Wisnu doesn’t care about impressive numbers; he simply wants to create a positive impact around him. The calm and optimistic energy surrounding him is magical and made us forget all our everyday life concerns.

We invest in the defining companies of tomorrow. But we know it all starts with you. We help exceptional people build startups from the earliest stages. When you join Antler, you join a community of founders, get support from a global platform of experts, resources, and receive investments to scale your ideas.

The founders series takes a deep dive into the journey of Antler portfolio company founders and sheds light on the space they are building in. This week, we spoke to Jiawen Ngeow, co-founder of DayOne. DayOne is revolutionising offline operations for stores by providing a turnkey solution that optimises and streamlines frontline staff communication and collaboration. Their mission is to make offline businesses as easy to run as online ones.

Behind every successful company, there is a whole team of great minds. Having a strong co-founding team is key but having incredible early employees onboard can be equally important for a company's success at the very beginning. Finding the right early employees can be hard as oftentimes they need to have a certain mix of skills, as well as be go-getter, have an entrepreneurial mindset, and be willing to operate both on a strategic level and doa the groundwork. We built The Talent Network - to help our portfolio companies scout and hire the best talent from the very beginning.

Starting a company is a big deal. At Antler, we believe in empowering entrepreneurial talent with the right tools to make an impact on the world. Here's a snapshot of what we look for in prospective founders.

The founders series takes a deep dive into the journey of Antler portfolio company founders and sheds light on the space they are building in. This month, we speak to Preet Gona and Alexis Zirah, co-founders of ARR Squared.

After interviewing hundreds of founders and working with dozens of teams to build and grow their startups from scratch, Antler Partner Winnie Khoo shares some insights on her experiences and doles out some advice to aspiring founders.

If you are an entrepreneur looking for investment for your early-stage startup, you may wonder “What is my company worth?”. The answer to this question can be quite difficult to formulate. Most valuations are a negotiation; a balance of setting a price that is acceptable to the founders but also agreeable to the investors. There is no general rule of putting a price on a startup, however, we have some tips that will make your valuation process easier.

The founder series takes a deep dive into the journey of Antler portfolio company founders and sheds light on the space they are building in. This week, we spoke to Anna Ratala, Co-Founder & CEO of Zvook.

Raising money is critical to fuel growth, build credibility, and stay afloat. Without external funding, the vast majority of startups won't survive or have very slow growth. The amount of money needed to take a startup to the next stage of growth is usually beyond the ability of founders and their friends and family to finance. Here is why, when, and how much to raise in order to succeed. This article is a second part of the series "Startup fundraising 101" - a resource that has been created in order to help all founders in their fundraising journey. Read the first article "Fundraising: What to expect from the journey? Stages of startup funding" here.

Antler held its fourth Singapore Demo Day and the first virtual one to an audience of investors, VCs and entrepreneurs from the global startup ecosystem. We had over 2800 people tune in to the live stream from our Demo Day landing page and YouTube. You can still get in touch with the new startups and rewatch their pitches through our post-Demo Day page.

What does it take to start a business during a pandemic and how do you adapt? Some of the founders from our new companies in the fourth Singapore cohort share their experiences ahead of Antler Southeast Asia’s first virtual Demo Day on July 16 at 5pm SGT.

Fundraising is not an easy walk in the park, it will be challenging. It always takes longer than you think and has more ups and downs than you'd expect. Go into the process with an attitude that "you'll be successful". You need to commit to this process, even though it can be unpredictable and messy.

We invited four experienced CTOs to discuss how to build a successful tech platform, the process behind establishing a startup and some of the key things to consider when you are just starting to build the tech behind your product/service. They discuss key questions such as why is speed important and what to prioritise between your product vision and customer validation.

Now that the majority of the companies have seen that there is a way to work remotely, it looks like remote working is here to stay for a while longer at least and that more and more companies are going down this path even after the pandemic. We have listed some tools and services that startups and VCs we know recommended.

Having a strong co-founding team is an important success factor for startups. In fact having the wrong founding team is amongst the top reasons why companies fail. Read more about how to build a strong team. Without a strong team, the idea will just stay as that, an idea. However, finding the right co-founder can seem like a long and complicated process. There are many things that entrepreneurs need to take into consideration when making the decision of who to start a company with; starting with what to look for in terms of skillsets, compatibility and personality, followed by where to meet available co-founders, to making sure it will last in the long run. Based on our experience, there are 5 important elements that make a strong co-founding team. But before you start searching for someone, you need to ask yourself some key questions.

At Antler, we often get asked how we invest in startups. We believe that startups belong in five different "archetypes" and we try to help our founders frame their companies and ideas around these archetypes. This, in turn, shall help them create a strong, compelling Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy that will help them win in their respective spaces and selected industries.So what are the five archetypes and how do they differ?

It has been incredible to see over the last few weeks how our portfolio companies are supporting their customers and communities during this global pandemic. They are doing this either through their existing solutions or pivoting so they can more appropriately address one of the pain points of the COVID-19 crisis. We are very proud of them. We have put together a (non-exhaustive) list of those companies and we will continue to update it to reflect these incredible initiatives. If you are interested in learning more about what they do or are in a position to help these companies in any way please reach out to them.

What founders should be considering with the added complexity of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Antler Global Partner Andreas Birnik shares his tips for navigating through a turbulent time to successfully innovate.

As part of Antler’s mission to chart the path to recovery, we want to support teams working on solutions to these problems by investing in their startups.

The Covid-19 epidemic is now a Global issue and everyone is affected one way or the other. As most of us are remote working and in-person events are on hold, we want to continue to share some of the insights and sessions that we usually do for our founders with the wider startup ecosystem so that we can help and support entrepreneurs around the world.

Being a startup founder can be difficult at the best of times. Adding the stress and impact of a pandemic, crisis or recession, especially now, with the human tragedy of the Covid-19 doesn’t make it easier.

There has never been a better time to start a technology-enabled business, given how much low-cost and high-quality existing tech infrastructure can be used, the digital business opportunity in Southeast Asia with exponential growth in smartphone usage and most importantly, localised problems that need to be solved in many parts of this region on a large scale.

In a global partnership, Antler is taking part in the Annual Investment Committee (AIM) Dubai summit in March. 6 Antler locations will hold a local startup pitch competition calling on all our portfolio companies in specific sectors.

Global startup generator and early-stage venture capital firm Antler and the National University of Singapore (NUS), via the Graduate Research Innovation Programme (GRIP), has launched an Executive Programme to enable more entrepreneurs to build successful deep tech startups. The bespoke six-month part-time programme will combine the best of both organisations including platforms, funding and ecosystems.

Many of us struggle to maintain boundaries from our work and our personal life. We discussed this with mindfulness expert Johanna Dahlman about how you can make sure you stick to your boundaries as 2020 get's underway.

The group of companies invested in the third Singapore program drive disruption in e.g., B2B SaaS, e-commerce, GreenTech, PropTech and HealthTech.

For those who have supported me along the way and those who are simply curious, I'd like to share my journey since July - from joining Antler Singapore with nothing but an idea, to being in Islamabad and just over a month away from launching Capture, the app enabling you to track, reduce and remove your climate footprint.

Antler is in the business of enabling the world's most exceptional people to build technology companies that solve real problems, and have a strong impact on the world. Last year we had the chance to start working with some truly amazing entrepreneurs: Wisnu Nugrahadi, Margana Mohamad and Dimas Pramudya. In only twelve months, they have built an incredibly fast growing company working with 150,000 agents across Indonesia. So what makes Sampingan special?

Antler has recently announced its plan to launch in Jakarta to enable more Indonesian entrepreneurs to build successful startups through its platform. Antler's vision is to invest in at least 20 Indonesian startups annually and give founders support by helping them form the right team, funding them from day 1 and giving them access to a global network of advisors and mentors.

‍Mattrvest are all about helping people plan, spend and save for what "mattrs" to them. Our Amsterdam team sat down with two of the three team members, Mayur Singh and Diane Delava while they were in town to discuss how the team met, why they decided to form Mattrvest and what their current go-to-market strategy looks like.

Cognicept is a service layer and platform from autonomous robotics to help improve failure rates and serviceability of autonomous systems by providing tele-operated, human in the loop support.

Seventeen new companies from our second Singapore program presented their startups to over 500 people from Southeast Asia's regional startup ecosystem. The energy was upbeat and buzzing at the event held at the School of the Arts concert hall.

Alright, let's say you're going on a trip to Asia and plan on hitting 5 different countries. You know you're gonna need to sort out a mobile connection to the local company in each new place. Chore. But, imagine if you could simply get your local SIMs before you even start your trip? So that once you land you are automatically connected. Before you've even finished breakfast in your New York apartment, in 5 minutes you've sorted out mobile connectivity for your adventure to the East. This is the aim of Airalo co-founder and Antler alumni, Bahadir Özdemir. He plans to turn the traditional roaming market completely on its head through new eSIM technology. Bahadir stopped by the Antler Amsterdam office for a quick chat with our marketing manager Hayden on the state of eSIM technology and the challenges in being the trailblazer for this emerging space:

Zoe Hall, Director of Marketing for the newly opened New York location, looks to fully communicate the advantages of Antler’s unique approach by sharing an illustrative encounter with Anna Ratala and Malik Alimoekhamedov, current co-founders of Zvook and Antler alumi.

Don’t strive for perfection on your first go- strive to prove that the business works and customers are willing to pay for it. Think of building your product as a miniseries, not as a movie.

Wisnu Nugrahadi is a founder from Antler's inaugural program in Singapore from July 2018. After the first eight weeks into the program, he and his co-founders Margana Mohamad and Dimas Pramudya created Sampingan.

Our very first demo day for Antler Singapore was met with great success, with 13 portfolio companies presenting their pitches to more than 500 investors from both the regional and international VC community. A great step forward from where they were six months ago.

We spent five minutes with robotics and tech engineer Alok Pathak to learn more about his entrepreneurial journey with Antler and the different aspects of building technology and prototyping that gets him excited.

Design thinking is a solution-based approach to problem-solving. It is a process that draws upon logic, imagination, intuition, and systematic reasoning, to solve complex problems by exploring possibilities of what could be and create desired outcomes that benefit the end-user (customer). Solonia Teodros, co-founder of The Change School*, breaks down the science of design thinking and how any professional can benefit from it.

How can a $1 horse be sold for a hundred bucks? Pretty easy, there are multiple ways to weave a narrative around your product or service which can set you apart from the crowd. Anh Nguyen, subscription marketing lead at YouTube APAC, shares her valuable insight into the secret to good storytelling for any product or brand. Storytelling is a crucial skill to master for any startup as it helps to inspire potential hires, customers and investors - to believe in your brand. The aim is to cut through the noise and communicate succinctly but effectively. Inspirational stories form the bedrock of effective communication, and they help to convey the sheer passion and drive behind incredible ideas.

After months of preparation, the first Antler cohort is finally in full force in Singapore. It has been an intensive 120 hours as we introduced our 62 founders to the program, each other, and ran through key topics and exercises that broke down barriers in getting to know each other. These sessions were formatted with the intention of bringing out different personalities and working styles, through a range of high and low pressure settings. There was a variety of light-hearted icebreaker sessions to intensive product building hackathons. Lots of laughter, chatter and hard work ensued. Here, we've put together a little roundup of our first-ever week!

"Try to make every lunch lead to a meeting with two new strangers" Lisa Enckell is a partner at Antler leading Marketing and PR. She shares how marketing for startups can be a challenge, but used right, the restrictions can be turned into a blessing.

Finding and recruiting talented co-workers is one of the hardest tasks as a founder. Antler's head of recruiting, Prerna Sharma, hired hundreds of people to Uber's Southeast Asia operations, and at other companies like Flow Traders, a Dutch proprietary trading firm which has the same hiring values as any growing startup. She has several years of experience in recruiting talent for startups. Here, she lists the crucial prerequisites you need to consider before building your team.

Jordan Dea-Mattson is a 35 year veteran of high tech, having worked at Apple, Adobe Systems, Yahoo and a number of Silicon Valley startups. He is now site director for Indeed.com's Singapore Engineering Centre, and recently he joined our Happy Hour to share some valuable advice with the Antler founders.

We are all familiar with the startup worlds of Berlin, Stockholm and Silicon Valley, but where do we look for Asia's startup hub? You might want to switch your gaze away from the skyscrapers of Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Russia. Southeast Asia could be your much-overlooked getaway into Asia, and here are some reasons why.

We are all familiar with the startup worlds of Berlin, Stockholm and Silicon Valley, but where do we look for Asia’s startup hub? This could be your much-overlooked gateway into Asia, and here are some reasons why.

In a series of blog posts, we'll introduce the people behind Antler. First off is our founder and CEO, Magnus Grimeland. Read on to get his perspectives on why he started Antler and what his ambitions are for this new startup generator. He also shares some useful tips for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Identifying talent is not easy; however, in saying this, specific attributes have been defined that make a person more likely to be a great founder. Academic research, coupled with the experience of startup investors and founding teams, point to a set of critical traits and skills that great founders should comprise.

We believe that the #1 reason behind successful companies is the setup of the co-founder teams. The right mix of the right people is what transforms a great idea into a great company.