Investor Profile: Antler India — the day-zero believer writing ₹4Cr first cheques

Antler is the global day-zero investor famous for backing founders before it is obvious — and Antler India, launched in Bengaluru in 2020, has become one of the country's busiest idea-stage engines. Led by Rajiv Srivatsa (co-founder of Urban Ladder) and Nitin Sharma (ex-NEA, Lightbox, founder of FirstPrinciples VC), it counts 115+ India portfolio companies and calls itself India's #1 most active AI investor. It works with founders from "just thinking about an idea" through the Antler India Residency to pre-seed.

Thesis and focus areas

Antler India backs "obsessed outliers" at idea stage — often before product or traction — helping founders form teams and validate ideas over the first 6–12 months. Sector-agnostic but thematic: founders building in India, for the world, with current energy on AI-first startups, SaaS, fintech, consumertech, ONDC/open networks, climate, Web3, spacetech and defence tech. The firm reports 37,000+ founder applications at a sub-1% selection rate.

Fund size and cheque size

Antler India closed ₹500 crore (~$60M) toward its maiden ₹600 crore (~$75M) pre-seed fund in September 2023 — one of India's largest dedicated pre-seed pools, backed by SIDBI, sovereign investors and 125+ LPs. The Antler India AI Residency writes ₹4 crore (~$470K) for 11% with decisions in 3 weeks and up to $30M in follow-on capital; under the ARC (Agreement for Rolling Capital) construct, idea-stage companies get a $250K first cheque plus up to $250K matched against external raises within 9 months. Globally, the late-stage Antler Elevate Fund is $285M.

Notable portfolio

The 115+ India portfolio includes IndiaP2P (peer lending), Kubo Care (senior care), Dodo Payments (cross-border payments), Aspera Industries (autonomous amphibious aircraft), HouseEazy (home resale), Inspecity (space robotics), Inferless (AI inference), Plotch.ai (ONDC infrastructure), Armory (counter-drone defence), Navana.ai (voice AI) and Tradeface (hyperlocal B2B). Follow-on backers include Accel, Peak XV, Kalaari, General Catalyst and Blume Ventures.

Partners

Rajiv Srivatsa (Partner, Bengaluru) co-founded Urban Ladder, which raised $100M+. Nitin Sharma (Partner) brings 12+ years of venture experience across NEA, Lightbox Ventures and FirstPrinciples, with 100+ tech investments. They are joined by Gowri Shankar (Associate Partner, SaaS/AI/Deep Tech; ex-InMobi, ClearTax), Yashveer Yadav (Associate Partner) and Jasnoor Gill (Director, Investments; ex-Nutanix).

Programs, credits and perks

The flagship Antler India Residency runs Bengaluru cohorts (with a ₹1 lakh/month founder stipend) plus an AI track powered by Hancock Prospecting: over $1M in AI-relevant perks and up to $4M total perks, including $1M in LLM credits and GPU access across 25+ vendors such as NVIDIA, Anthropic, OpenAI and Hugging Face. The Antler-ONDC platform, built with Nandan Nilekani, FIDE and ONDC, offers $300K pre-seed cheques for open-protocol builders. Beyond cohorts: Antler Direct (direct cheques, no programme needed), Embark for US go-to-market, and Before Day Zero, the invite-only pre-startup community.

How founders can approach them

Apply to the Antler India Residency for the ₹4 crore fast-track, use the Antler-ONDC platform for open networks, or reach out via Antler Direct — a warm founder referral works best.