Antler injects US$5.1m into 37 pre-seed startups in S-E Asia

EARLY-STAGE investments often face higher rates of failure compared to later-stage deals, but that hasn’t stopped Antler, which has just injected US$5.1 million into 37 early-stage startups in South-east Asia.

The round of investments is the largest deal across the region in total number of investees, according to Antler.

These 37 companies operate across 19 different industries, which include AI, SaaS (software as a service), fintech, and healthcare.

Jussi Salovaara, Antler’s co-founder and managing partner in Asia, pointed out the company’s focus on early-stage South-east Asian startups, particularly those that operate in vertical AI and Industry 4.0.

The company said it expects to see more “durable businesses” in vertical AI – aka AI solutions that are designed around a specific industry. Media, customer lifecycle management, and large language model integration are other domains Antler is interested in.

“With greater awareness and adoption of predictive AI, Southeast Asia startups now have the opportunity to embrace a new paradigm of hyperlocalization and global ambition,” said Winnie Khoo, partner at Antler.

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The current round of investments by Antler received more than 5,000 applications. In total, the VC firm has backed over 1,000 startups globally since 2018.

Antler has also recently extended its operations to Malaysia, teaming up with the sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional. TECH IN ASIA.