Companies

VC firm Antler to raise up to $50 million for India Fund

Sangeetha Chengapp Bengaluru | Updated on June 01, 2020 Published on June 01, 2020

Magnus Grimeland, founder and CEO of Antler

Rajiv Srivatsa

Aims to build 150 start-ups in the next five years

Global early-stage VC Antler has announced its launch in India to enable more entrepreneurs to build start-ups through their platform, support and global reach. Antler plans to invest in up to 40 companies within its first year of operations in India through an India-dedicated fund and plans to expand to other major cities in the next three to five years.

The local operation will start in Bengaluru, led by Rajiv Srivatsa, co-founder of Urban Ladder, who is joining as Partner.

Rajiv Srivatsa, told BusinessLine, “We will raise up to $50 million for the India Fund which will be deployed over the next 3-5 years across multiple cities and are looking to build over 150 start-ups in the same period. Today, India is at the stage where China was a decade ago. In the coming years, we have the potential to take this ecosystem into the next orbit and build hundreds of world-class start-ups at scale,” he said.

The inaugural Antler India program will kick off in Bangalore in the next three to four months with 70-100 entrepreneurs.

Published on June 01, 2020

A letter from the Editor

Dear Readers,

The coronavirus crisis has changed the world completely in the last few months. All of us have been locked into our homes, economic activity has come to a near standstill. Everyone has been impacted.

Including your favourite business and financial newspaper. Our printing and distribution chains have been severely disrupted across the country, leaving readers without access to newspapers. Newspaper delivery agents have also been unable to service their customers because of multiple restrictions.

In these difficult times, we, at BusinessLine have been working continuously every day so that you are informed about all the developments – whether on the pandemic, on policy responses, or the impact on the world of business and finance. Our team has been working round the clock to keep track of developments so that you – the reader – gets accurate information and actionable insights so that you can protect your jobs, businesses, finances and investments.

We are trying our best to ensure the newspaper reaches your hands every day. We have also ensured that even if your paper is not delivered, you can access BusinessLine in the e-paper format – just as it appears in print. Our website and apps too, are updated every minute, so that you can access the information you want anywhere, anytime.

But all this comes at a heavy cost. As you are aware, the lockdowns have wiped out almost all our entire revenue stream. Sustaining our quality journalism has become extremely challenging. That we have managed so far is thanks to your support. I thank all our subscribers – print and digital – for your support.

I appeal to all or readers to help us navigate these challenging times and help sustain one of the truly independent and credible voices in the world of Indian journalism. Doing so is easy. You can help us enormously simply by subscribing to our digital or e-paper editions. We offer several affordable subscription plans for our website, which includes Portfolio, our investment advisory section that offers rich investment advice from our highly qualified, in-house Research Bureau, the only such team in the Indian newspaper industry.

A little help from you can make a huge difference to the cause of quality journalism!

Support Quality Journalism
Cube Wealth raises mid-series funding of half a million USD