…Global venture capital firm targets 100 African startups in five years, selects only 25 to 30 founders from 7,000 applicants per cohort

The founder and Chief Executive Officer of global venture capital firm Antler, Magnus Grimeland, has said the firm can significantly reduce the failure rate of startups from an industry average of about 99 per cent to between 30 and 40 per cent through careful founder selection, sustained financial support and access to business networks.

Grimeland, who spoke to journalists at Antler’s office inside Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Thursday, said the real measure of a successful venture capital fund was not the number of failures it avoided but the exceptional companies it discovered and helped build.

He explained that although venture capital remained a high-risk investment, identifying outstanding founders and supporting them through different stages of their entrepreneurial journeys could improve their chances of success.

“Venture capital will always be a risky asset class where, on occasion, we’ll invest in companies that won’t make it,” he said.

Grimeland estimated that only about one in every 100 startups established remained a viable business after 10 years, stressing that Antler’s approach was designed to reduce the risks associated with early-stage investments.

He said the firm achieved this by identifying exceptional founders, working closely with them in its offices, providing initial and subsequent funding, and connecting them with other investors, customers and talented professionals.

According to him, the number of failed companies in a portfolio matters less than the exceptional performers capable of generating extraordinary returns.

“One exceptional company can return 1,000 to 3,000 times to a fund. The outliers deliver all the return,” he said.

To illustrate the point, Grimeland disclosed that Antler invested in one company when it was valued at about $1 million, but its valuation had since risen to approximately $3 billion. Another company, which attracted its investment at a $10 million valuation, is now worth about $14 billion.

He said the firm did not blame founders whose businesses failed, adding that it remained willing to support them if they returned with new ideas.

Citing Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, Grimeland said some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs had experienced near-collapse before achieving commercial success.

He recalled that Tesla had nearly gone bankrupt several times, while SpaceX experienced repeated rocket failures before making significant breakthroughs.

“We don’t blame them for failure,” he said.

Grimeland also emphasised that Antler’s relationship with founders extended beyond providing initial capital, citing travel technology company Airalo as an example of its long-term investment approach.

He said Antler provided Airalo’s founder with an initial $100,000 before introducing the company to Sequoia, which funded its next investment round. Antler subsequently invested another $500,000.

A year later, Japanese investment group Rakuten led the company’s Series A funding round with about $7 million to $8 million, while Antler contributed another $2 million.

He said the firm had continued investing in the company through subsequent funding rounds.

“We want to be there, not only at day zero, but as partners throughout the entire journey, continuing to contribute with capital, introducing them to great other VCs, to customers, to talent,” he said.

Grimeland disclosed that Antler had screened about 600,000 founders globally and currently backed more than 2,000 companies.

He said the firm expected to support approximately 500 new companies annually, adding that it planned to back at least 100 new businesses across Africa within the next five years, with the possibility of increasing that number by another 50 to 100 per cent.

On Nigeria, he said venture capital investors could not afford to wait for what they considered the perfect investment climate because innovative companies could emerge at any time.

He challenged the country’s entrepreneurs and investors to identify where Nigeria’s first $100 million technology company would emerge.

“It could be that they’re sitting downstairs now,” he said.

According to him, Nigeria offers investment opportunities across healthcare, education, food, agriculture, climate and energy, among other sectors.

He identified three qualities Antler considers essential when evaluating founders: an exceptional team, an ambitious long-term vision and a clear strategy for achieving the first $1 million in revenue.

Grimeland explained that Antler’s decision to establish its Nigerian operations took time because the firm wanted to identify the right person to lead its local team.

He added that the company received more than 7,000 applications for each founder cohort but selected only about 25 to 30 applicants.

Why Antler selects only 25 to 30 founders from 7,000 applicants

Explaining the rigorous selection process, a senior Antler official said Nigeria had no shortage of talented people but that talent alone was insufficient to build a successful business.

“Everybody has a side hustle, everybody has talent there,” the official said.

He explained that the firm prioritised what it described as domain expertise, which involves founders having substantial experience in the industries they intend to transform.

According to him, entrepreneurs who lack practical industry knowledge risk repeating mistakes already encountered by established players because they do not understand the challenges and complexities of the sectors they seek to disrupt.

He advised aspiring founders to gain industry experience, understand the problems they intend to solve and establish some level of traction before launching their businesses.

Using journalism as an example, he said a journalist seeking to develop a technology platform for the media industry would have an advantage because of existing knowledge of the sector and access to potential users.

“So, we back founders with deep domain expertise with the ability to move faster than anyone else,” he said.

He identified speed of execution as another critical consideration, arguing that entrepreneurs who execute their ideas faster often gain an advantage over competitors pursuing similar opportunities.

“Today, two people can have the same idea at the same time,” he said.

The official said the firm’s highly selective process reflected its determination to identify founders with the experience, ambition and capacity to turn ideas into sustainable businesses.

He explained that successful applicants entered what Antler calls its sandbox, an intensive programme that provides selected founders with access to professional services, industry contacts and other resources needed to develop their ideas.

Participants, he said, could consult leading lawyers and accountants, access KPMG’s professional services and receive introductions to relevant industry players, particularly those building businesses in financial technology.

“So, we will open up all the resources for you,” he said.

He added that founders were given a limited period to demonstrate that their ideas could become investable businesses.

Those who successfully met the requirements received an initial $100,000 investment at a $1 million valuation, with opportunities for additional funding as their businesses expanded.

The official said the process was designed to ensure that Antler invested in founders who combined deep industry knowledge with the ability to execute ambitious ideas.

Antler’s global ambition

Founded in Singapore in 2017 by Grimeland, Antler is a global early-stage venture capital firm that supports entrepreneurs from the earliest stages of business development.

The firm operates founder residency programmes across 24 locations worldwide, including Africa, and has invested in more than 2,000 companies, among them Airalo, Reebelo and Lovable.

Before establishing Antler, Grimeland co-founded Zalora, which grew into one of Asia’s leading fashion e-commerce platforms, and helped scale Global Fashion Group across 26 markets.

A Harvard graduate and former partner at McKinsey & Company, he also served in the Norwegian Navy Special Forces.

Antler was named one of the world’s most active pre-seed investors by PitchBook in 2025, while Dealroom ranked it among the most active investors in artificial intelligence startups.

For Grimeland, the central investment philosophy remains identifying exceptional entrepreneurs early, providing them with the resources to build globally competitive businesses and staying with them as they grow.