In just six months, Antler has enabled hundreds of entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds to create outstanding companies that are already positively impacting global and local economies with the next wave of technology. What can take a young startup months and years to accomplish in a new market we can accelerate significantly with our experienced team and advisors. We are well on our way to becoming the number one platform for entrepreneurs globally by becoming a truly global company ourselves, however, our journey is only just beginning.
— MAGNUS GRIMELAND, CEO
Since the beginning of the year, we have invested $6M into launching 44 global startups operating out of Europe and Asia, received 13,000 applications to our programs and selected over 450 exceptional individuals to become startup founders.
Following the start of the first program in Singapore in 2018, we have expanded to eight locations including Stockholm, New York, London, Amsterdam, Oslo, Sydney and East Africa (Nairobi and Addis Ababa). Two programs take place annually in each city, where after the first phase of the program successful startups receive $100,000 to $150,000 of investment (depending on the region) in funding from Antler for a minority equity stake. Startups leverage Antler's global platform to expand and easily scale into other markets. Our goal is to generate a total of 100 to 150 new startups around the world by the end of the year.
Our successful startups are now operating across 15 different industries including FinTech, SpaceTech, Robotics, and HealthTech. Some exciting examples are:
A system providing affordable and safe infrastructure inspections using drones and AI to detect risks to power lines. These risks are increasing because of the impact of global warming which has resulted in more forest fires and power cuts around the world.
A task-based workforce platform connecting organisations with freelance employees in Indonesia. The startup recently secured $USD500,000 from Golden Gate Ventures. Since it was founded, the company has on-boarded 20,000 agents across 140,000 projects. As well, in 7 months, the company's value has gone up ten times.
A healthtech app that allows patients to communicate mental and physical health symptoms by writing and drawing how their body feels. The app will help identify risks, educate users on their health and generate anonymous data for research.
One of Antler's key missions is to break the barriers to entrepreneurship. Our founders range from Cambridge graduates to self-made geniuses because, rather than focusing on individuals' backgrounds, the team looks for applicants with spike, inner-drive and grit. With programs operating across 5 continents, Antler has already attracted an incredibly diverse range of people, with founding teams comprising over 50 nationalities. The recruitment process has also generated strong female representation, particularly in the first European program where 64% of the entrepreneurs presenting at the local demo day in June 2019 were women.
In just three months, the Antler program has enabled Shamba to put together a team working across three continents by providing invaluable advice and pre-seed investment to our company in its early stages. We simply could not have launched our platform in Kenya without the support of the Antler teams in Stockholm and Nairobi, under the guidance of the Antler Global team. With this support, together with introductions to key investors both in Europe and Kenya, we are set to grow exponentially, working collaboratively with local farmers to solve inequality and hunger on the African continent.
— MICHAEL WALLIS-BROWN, FOUNDER AND CEO OF SHAMBA, A STARTUP GENERATED BY ANTLER THAT IS FIGHTING WORLD HUNGER BY OPTIMIZING FARMING IN AFRICA
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