SmartCap Venture Capital Fund has invested €5 million in Antler‘s Nordic Fund II, strengthening its commitment to early-stage startups and innovative tech investment strategies.  The fund has also received anchor investments from the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) and Tesi from Finland, 

It follows Anter’s first €30 million fund launched in 2021.  

In the last five years, Antler has backed more than 400 European startups, many of which are based across the Nordics. 

With 140 investments in 2023 alone, Antler is one of the few early-stage VC firms that has increased its rate of investment during the downturn. Antler is also actively removing barriers to entrepreneurship and is committed to supporting a new generation of diverse founders. 

A third of Antler’s portfolio companies have at least one female founder, and globally founders supported by Antler represent 145 nationalities.  

Nordic Fund II primarily targets the Nordic region, covering Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, and it has now entered the Estonian market. 

According to Sille Pettai, SmartCap board member and fund manager:

“This investment is a great opportunity to join forces with TESI, EIFO and Investinor and create cross-border deal flow across the Nordics and Estonia,

It’s great to see that Antler aims to extend its innovative model to Estonia, by putting a new generation of Estonian founders on its radar and opening the Nordic program for them.” 

Antler’s operating model is based on 12-week accelerator residency, where participants form teams and establish startups. Successful teams that emerge from the residency receive an investment of up to €300,000 to help propel their startups to the next stage. 

Jussi Kallasvuo, Partner at Antler shared:

“Estonia has consolidated its position as one of the most exciting tech ecosystems in Europe. It has produced some of Europe’s fastest growing tech companies and Tallinn is home to more unicorn founders than established tech hubs like Manchester, Madrid and Copenhagen.” 

Antler is a global investor committed to supporting the best founders around the world and we are very excited to work with SmartCap to back a new generation of Estonian tech startups,”

Lead image: From the left: Tobias Bengtsdahl (Antler), Micheal Wiatr (Antler), Antti Törmänen (Antler), Smartcap’s Investment Manager Karl Järvsalu and Jussi Kallasvuo (Antler). Photo: uncredited.