Antler launches $77 million 2nd Australian fund as brings forward Brisbane launch to 2025

Global early-stage investor Antler has closed its 2nd Australian fund, raising $17 million more than planned to hit $77 million within 12 months.

Antler previously raised its first $46 million local fund in 2019.

Fund 2 will back more than 100 new pre-seed Australian startups and is already close to halfway there, having invested in 40 ideas since May 2023. They include uni student networking platform Huddled, gym loyalty CRM Fitflo’s AI , enterprise software help desk Balo and education comparison site Enrola, which last week announced an $800,000 pre-Seed round.

The success of the fund build will also see Antler accelerate the launch of its Queensland program by 12 months, kicking off in Brisbane in February 2025. 

The Fund has already backed five Queensland-based startups, including hiring platform Yesterday and  talent management software Pactify.

In February, the Queensland government’s new $130m venture development fund (QVCDF) backed Antler and several other VCs to support local startups.

Antler general partner James McClure  said the Brisbane residency will focus on developing more than 15 pre-seed startups there over the next few years.

“The decision to fast-track our Brisbane residency reflects the vibrant entrepreneurial community here. We’ve seen significant demand from founders across industries, and our goal is to provide them with the capital and global backing needed to turn early-stage concepts into successful, scalable ventures,” he said.

“The combination of our second fund, QIC’s support, and the ARC model means founders here have access to the resources they need to scale from day zero to Series A.” 

It’s Antler third Australian site, alongside Sydney and Melbourne, in a global network of 27 cities.

Founding partner Bede Moore said that 32% of the 2nd fund commitments came from existing LPs, while a portion was sourced from Antler’s Global Access Fund (GAF), which gives the VC’s investors access to a diversified portfolio of around 1,500 startups globally at inception-stage valuations.

“This milestone is a testament to the unique strength of Antler’s Day Zero investment approach and is consistent with the growth we have seen across our Early Stage Funds across the globe,” he said.

“We are very pleased to be augmenting the continued support of our local LP base with an increasing pool of offshore institutional investors who recognise the health and opportunity of our local ecosystem. Australia Fund II represents a further advance for us locally and will allow us to provide deeper support to our founders from Day Zero to Series A”

Antler is also launching a new follow-on investment structure, ARC (Agreement for Rolling Capital) in Australia, which guarantees the VC’s follow-on participation in the subsequent pre-seed round.

Moore said Antler will take up to a third of the next round if the founder can secure at least $300,000 from sophisticated investors in its first year.

“Our data shows that companies which fail to raise capital within their first 12 months are unlikely to reach Series A,” he said.

“However, across the 1300+ investments Antler has made globally since 2018, we’ve found that those that secure at least US$250k during that period have nearly a 50% chance of advancing to Series A.

“We’ve designed the ARC instrument to be a key support for Antler founders as they scale to that stage, and we’re excited to implement it across the Australian portfolio.”

Antler has backed more than 145 startups in Australia since launched here in 2019. They’re gone on to raise $160 million raise in external capital across the portfolio.