VC firm Antler doubles down on insto money with new partner
Antler is cosying up to institutional investors with a key strategic hire.
Street Talk can reveal the early-stage VC has appointed investment and superannuation industry exec Graeme Mather as a global partner.
Antler global partner Graeme Mather. Oscar Lewis
Mather was most recently Schroders head of distribution, product and marketing, and ran the Wealth division at Mercer. He’s also the co-founder of Datafabric – a fintech startup that provides strategic and AI consultancy and software services to asset managers.
The hire will put Antler on the path to building stronger relationships with large asset managers as they seek early access to emerging tech. The VC has seen commitments from more than 30 large institutional asset owners over the past two years. This includes 12 sovereign wealth funds and government investors – UK’s Phoenix Group and M&G Investments, the New Mexico State Investment Council, Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional and Danish sovereign wealth fund Vækstfonden. Mather will look after institutional strategic partnerships in the APAC region.
“Asset managers are generally increasing their allocations to alternatives and innovation, looking to capture the leading growth trends that will contribute to the largest and most impactful companies over the next
decade – quantum, blockchain, AI, machine learning, robotics and cloud,” Ant Millet, Antler’s Sydney-based global partner, told Street Talk.
“Post-market peak in 2021 the trend has been to allocate to the earlier stages of innovation and venture, and globally.”
Antler was founded in 2017 in Singapore and was set up locally by Bede Moore. It’s a little different from the AirTrees and the Blackbirds. It asks wannabe startup founders to apply to its incubator-style program with an idea for a new business.
The VC investor gives them an eight-week stipend and resources to get up and running. If its investment committee likes what it sees, Antler cuts a $225,000 cheque out of its fund to buy 12 per cent of the equity.
Mather’s appointment comes after the VC announced the close of its $425 million global elevate fund which will be used to back the further growth of start-ups created by Antler, as well as some other non-Antler start-ups.
Mather will be based in Sydney and has already hit the pavement, chairing the CIO panel at the ASFA Conference in Adelaide on Wednesday alongside QIC state CIO Allison Hill, Cbus deputy CIO and head of private markets Alexandra Campbell and Australian Retirement Trust CIO Ian Patrick.
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