Antler India, the Indian arm of global early-stage investment platform, Antler, which focuses on pre-seed startups, has closed ₹ 500 crore of its maiden ₹ 600 crore ( ~ $75 million) India-focussed fund. Antler India is expecting to make the final close this quarter, reported Economic Times.
The India-focussed fund, which is separate from the global Antler franchise, has been in the making for almost one and a half years.
About ₹325 crore of the total corpus raised has seen participation from domestic pools of capital, including from Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). Other investors in the fund included sovereign entities, healthcare endowments as well as Antler’s global limited partners.
The India focused fund’s investments are expected to be more founder-led than sector-related, said the ET report citing Rajiv Srivatsa, cofounder and GP of Antler India.
Antler India's average cheque size is around $300,000 for 7–9% in the company.
From this corpus, Antler India is looking to back nearly 100 early-stage startups at the idea to pre-seed stage in next 3-4 years, and will reserve nearly half of the fund's corpus for the new investments while the remaining will be to double-down on top performers from its existing portfolio companies.
To date, Antler India has completed nearly 40 investments, with 28 companies receiving funding and the rest currently in the final stages of documentation. Antler India's investments span a range of sectors, including SaaS, consumer services, Web 3, and fintech.
Some of Antler India's investment include Bold Finance, Bookee, Cricinshots, Finverv, Flint, Gladful, Humit, Plotch.AI, InspeCity and Salad.
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