- ByStartupStory | February 13, 2024
Antler, a global early-stage venture capital firm, has made a significant investment of US$5.1 million into 37 early-stage startups in Southeast Asia, marking the largest deal of its kind in the region in terms of the number of investees.
These 37 companies span across 19 different industries, including AI, SaaS (software as a service), fintech, and healthcare. Jussi Salovaara, Antler’s co-founder and managing partner in Asia, highlighted the company’s focus on early-stage South-east Asian startups, particularly those operating in vertical AI and Industry 4.0.
“We expect to see more ‘durable businesses’ in vertical AI – AI solutions designed around a specific industry,” said Salovaara. He also mentioned that Antler is interested in domains like media, customer lifecycle management, and large language model integration.
Winnie Khoo, partner at Antler, emphasized the opportunity for Southeast Asian startups to embrace a new paradigm of hyperlocalization and global ambition, driven by greater awareness and adoption of predictive AI.
The current round of investments received more than 5,000 applications, underscoring the region’s vibrant startup ecosystem. Since 2018, Antler has backed over 1,000 startups globally. The firm has recently extended its operations to Malaysia, collaborating with the sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional, further expanding its reach and support for early-stage startups in the region.
