Indian startups to receive Antler investments worth $100 million

New year has brought in encouraging news for Indian startups as Antler, the global early-stage Venture Capital (VC) fund announced its plans of investing $100 million in the tech startups in India over the next four years. The announcement was made on Wednesday. 

Fund’s India operations will be headed by experienced investor Nitin Sharma. He will also be the partner and co-head of country operations. 

Sharma is the founder of First Principles VC which was established in 2018. The VC has invested in around 35 Indian startups including Fynd, which was later acquired by Reliance Jio, and Ratan Tata backed Niki. Niki is a Bengaluru-based Artificial Intelligence company and Fynd provides online to offline platforms to retailers in the fashion sector. Sharma was also an investor in the US with New Enterprise Associates, a venture firm. 

Antler’s India operations will be led by Sharma and Rajiv Srivatsa. Srivatsa, the founder of Urban Ladder, was included last year in the fund. 

Last year in June, when Antler was launched in India, it had shared its plans of investing in at least 40 Indian companies within first year of operations in India. Over next four years, plan is to invest in 150 startups in India. 

Magnus Grimeland, founder and chief executive officer of Antler, said during the India launch, “We believe the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem has massive potential. We want to lower the barriers for exceptional people to start a technology company, regardless of their background or geography. In addition, we want to provide India originating startups with Antler’s global platform to ensure startups from India can expand, scale, succeed, and tap into expertise on a global level.” 

Antler is a Singapore based venture capital fund and is spread across world at 11 locations. Till date the fund has invested in over 160 tech companies globally.