Antler Secures $13.5m Fund to Fastrack East African Startups
The Kenyan VC firm is the world’s most-active early-stage investor, supporting hundreds of technology startups and thousands of entrepreneurs across six continents.
Antler has announced securing US$13.5 million investment fund to continue to support early-stage tech startups in East Africa.
Described as oversubscribed, the Antler initially sought to raise USD 10M with a target to make 35 investments over three years.
Antler to date has run five full cohorts totaling 153 founders, and made 14 investments. Starting this month, Antler is embarking on a new, community-driven platform approach where it will accept founders and teams on a rolling basis.
The model will be twofold, accepting founders looking to build their businesses with Antler from scratch, as well as early-stage startups looking to raise capital. Antler aims to provide one of the shortest institutional funding cycles for a global fund in Africa, focused on bringing coaching and true value to all our founders from day one.
Magnus Grimeland, Antler Founder and CEO said: “We are excited about Antler’s presence in East Africa and over time in other parts of Africa. With fast growing economies and a rapidly developing startup ecosystem, we believe this is the perfect time to launch and build tech startups on the continent.”
“With Melalite Ayenew and Marie Nielsen leading Antler East Africa, we have two great female partners who have shown exceptional skill as investors and entrepreneurs, and Antler looks forward to enabling and investing in entrepreneurs that are innovating across a range of industries in the coming years,” Grimeland added.