Antler, one of the most active early-stage VC firms in Europe, has launched its second Nordic fund, with a target size of €150 million. €50 million has already been raised in the first closing. Antler’s Nordic Fund II has a target size 5x larger than the first fund, which closed at €30 million in 2021.
Launch partners for the fund include investors from the first Antler Nordic fund, the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, and Investinor as well as new partners such as Formue, Ferd Impact and Nysnø Climate Investments.
Antler has offices in Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen and the Second Nordic Fund will start making investments into tech startups across Sweden, Norway and Denmark immediately. Antler will also start backing founders in Finland from 2024 having just opened an office and started building out a team in Helsinki.
Kristian Jul Røsjø, Partner at Antler, commented: “Five years after Antler’s first investments in the Nordics, the launch of our second fund demonstrates our commitment to continue supporting a new generation of founders in the region. The high number of investors from Fund I re-committing to our second Fund is testament to the potential of our investment strategy and the success of our portfolio companies. We now have a track record of backing diverse founders leading fast-growth tech startups and we are uniquely positioned to accelerate the growth of entrepreneurs pioneering technologies in the sectors set to define the next decade.”
The Fund is designed to back a new generation of diverse tech founders and has the capacity to support portfolio companies from pre-seed through to Series A. Antler’s global fund, Elevate, has the scope to continue supporting portfolio companies to Series C.
Antler has been backing startups in Nordics for the last five years. In that time, Antler’s first Nordic Fund has invested in 144 early-stage startups across the Nordics – a portfolio that now has a combined value of nearly half a billion dollars ($490 million).
Nearly half (40%) of the startups backed by Antler in the Nordics are developing technologies designed to have a positive social or environmental impact and are classified as ‘planet positive’. The Antler Nordic Fund II will continue accelerating the growth of climate tech startups in the region.
Erik Balck Sørensen, CIO at EIFO, said: “EIFO´s investment in Antler’s second Nordic fund comes from a standpoint of wanting to strengthen our partnership with Antler. For EIFO this is also a long-term investment. Antler has shown the ability to execute on their goals and through the talent they attract, and we look forward to collaborating further with the great team at Antler.”
Jan Nylund, Head of Private Equity at Formue, added: “Formue has an extensive track record for investments within Venture Capital and Private Equity in the Nordics, Europe and US, and we have been looking for an opportunity to invest in a diverse group of curated Founders and fast growing early stage tech companies. In our immediate vicinity, we discovered one of the most promising set-ups and we are eager to support Antler in funding day zero companies across the Nordics.”
With 102 investments in 2022 alone, Antler has emerged as one of the most active early-stage VC firms in Europe. Its European portfolio includes more than 300 startups spanning climate tech, fintech, e-commerce and proptech sectors.
