Asia’s startup ecosystem hasn’t been doing well in the past couple years , as everything from geopolitics to higher interest rates affected investors’ willingness to write checks. Many venture firms have exited China, which used to be the continent’s biggest venture market, and elsewhere, though there hasn’t been a huge decline in the number of fundraising rounds, the rounds have shrunk a lot — investors are no longer spending as much as they used to. Still, some investors are bullish on the continent’s potential, setting up global strategies as they seek fund-returning investments.
Venture firm Antler appears to be one such investor. It launched a $285 million emerging growth fund , called Antler Elevate Fund, in June 2023, and has been investing between $1 million and $10 million in Series A rounds and later worldwide. Established in 2018 in Singapore, Antler has since grown its investments and networks globally, extending its reach to the U.
S., Europe and Africa, and throughout Asia, including Vietnam, Japan and Malaysia. TechCrunch caught up with Antler’s founder and CEO, Magnus Grimeland, at an event in Seoul to talk about startup trends in Asia, the opportunities that the firm sees in the region, and how it approaches investments as AI grows ever more prominent.
Funding may have come down, but Grimeland firmly believes in Asia’s potential for innovation. “One thing that has been common across Asia is all the ecosystems have been growing very rapidly..