ANTLER LAUNCHES NEW RESIDENCY

Antler is doubling down on speed with the launch of an always-on residency designed to fast-track funding for “outlier” tech founders. Backed by the $100M+ Antler Nordic Fund II—triple the size of its first fund—the firm will now make investment decisions in as little as four weeks, replacing traditional cohorts with a continuous model that lets founders build and raise year-round. Selected startups receive €500K in funding alongside day-zero support, access to Antler’s 30+ global offices, and a new San Francisco hub aimed at connecting Nordic talent with Silicon Valley.

Antler is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in startups at the idea and pre-seed stage. Founded in 2017, the firm operates through a residency model in which founders receive support to develop business ideas, form teams and prepare for early funding. Antler runs programs and invests across multiple regions, including Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, and has backed hundreds of startups across sectors such as fintech, climate, health and artificial intelligence.

Antler is overhauling its early-stage investment model in the Nordics, launching a continuous residency designed to dramatically reduce the time it takes founders to secure funding. The move replaces the firm’s traditional biannual cohorts with an always-open program that allows Antler to make investment decisions in as little as two to six weeks.

The new residency follows the final close of Antler Nordic Fund II at more than $100 million—triple the size of the firm’s first Nordic fund—and comes amid what Antler describes as a new “execution era” in European tech. The firm’s research shows that unicorns founded since 2020 are reaching billion-dollar valuations in under two years, compared with seven years for startups founded earlier, while newer companies in its portfolio are hitting first revenue three times faster than those founded just three years ago.

Selected founders will receive one-to-one support from Antler partners across Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo and Helsinki, access to more than $1 million in partner perks from companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity and AWS, and a €500,000 investment package split between an immediate €200,000 investment and a €300,000 commitment for the next funding round.

Antler also announced the launch of a new San Francisco office, which will invest in Bay Area startups and help Nordic founders connect with Silicon Valley investors and talent. The firm has previously backed Nordic startups including Lovable, Two, Wingbits and Treyd.

Tobias Bengtsdahl, Partner at Antler, comments, “In a market defined by AI and breakneck execution, the best founders don’t want to wait months for a cohort to start – they need to build now. This new generation of founders need investors to match their velocity and allow them to build at high speed. We are responding with our new residency, and providing a permanent high-performance environment where the most technical and ambitious talent in the Nordics can turn an idea into a category-defining company in record time. If you have the grit to build a rocketship, Antler is now open for you every single day of the year.”

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