- Antler invested £2.2 million in 10 UK pre-seed startups.
- According to Antler, more than one-third of these startups are developing physical AI or industrial automation solutions.
- The initial investment in each startup is approximately £210,000, split between debt and equity.
Antler, which began operating in Singapore in 2017 and has since expanded to 30 cities, invested £2.2 million into 10 pre-seed startups during the most recent founder residency and, in some cases, made direct investments in existing teams.
The list includes Cloop, a to-do list that does itself; Lir Labs, which automates biological water treatment; Marco, a learning layer for physical intelligence; Ninopay, which helps families spread the cost of childcare while providers get paid upfront; Picnic, an AI assistant for product teams; Plenex, which lets users query the physical world; siliXon, which converts natural language requests into working electronics; and Sonura, a generative AI for music creation. Two other startups are still in stealth mode.
Over one third of the new UK startups they have supported are focused on industrial automation and physical AI, a record figure for Antler, says Hannah Leach, a partner at Antler, toTech Funding News.
According to Leach, each initial investment amounts to about £210,000 and is split between debt and equity.
Exploring untapped industries
Initially, Antler did not set out to focus on physical AI.
“We are a generalist fund, not one that is based on specific hypotheses,” Leach said, adding that the founders’ areas of interest align with broader industry trends. Although the startups are grouped under the categories of physical AI and agentic AI, Leach made it clear that the founders originated these themes.
Founders are focusing on analog industries because there is less competition, even though it is harder to sell to sectors that are “not tech native” and have longer sales cycles, says Leach.
She also pointed out the opportunity for strong customer retention: “If you can integrate yourselves into those traditional, established workflows, then you’ll end up building some stickiness.”
The physical AI market size will reach e of $1.5 billion in 2026, rising to $15.24 billion by 2032. Last week, Patrick Bion, CEO of Minimal, said expanding physical AI companies takes longer and requires significant capital to deploy. The founders of Wave by Vento in Turin noted that Europe cannot match either China’s production capacity or the United States’ level of research spending.
Although pre-seed funding does not eliminate this gap, it does determine which startups get the opportunity to compete.
Big Tech backgrounds are not the main trend
Many founders have distinguished backgrounds: 30% have previous experience at major technology companies, 60% have been involved in early-stage startups, and 25% come from the financial sector, with some overlap.
Specifically, six founders were from Big Tech, and thirteen have a technical background. Notable companies mentioned include Meta, Google, Snapchat, NVIDIA, Affirm, and Allica Bank.
“We have a fairly even distribution,” Leach adds, citing former founders, engineers, AI and machine learning researchers with PhDs, and a number from big technology companies.
“People who leave are doing so to pursue new opportunities. There’s simply so much opportunity these days. They can achieve so much more than ever before with even less than in the past,” she adds.
Other Big Tech graduates are likewise raising money as reported in other TFN stories. Klarent, a Zurich-based company founded by two former Google engineers, secured $8 million in seed funding. Souk, based in London and founded by former employees of Deel, GitHub and BlackRock, raised $1.6 million, with Antler as one of its investors.
Larger investments in a tougher seed market
Antler has increased its investment over time. Previously, it had invested £840,000 in seven startups (£120,000 per company) and £1.7 million in 14 startups (£121,000 each) in spring 2025, as Vestbee stated.
The current figure, approximately £210,000 per startup, is almost double and aligns with the terms TFN reported in August 2025: £125,000 for 8.5% equity, an £85,000 convertible note, and up to £330,000 pre-committed for the next round. The earlier totals may have been based on different investment structures, so the figures may not be directly comparable.
Startups are now progressing faster, running quicker pilots, gaining more experience, and making more frequent changes of direction. As a result, Antler’s investment approach has changed.
“In the end, we are investing in the founders and in their capacity to take on feedback. The thing we invest in at the moment is likely not going to be what they have built in six months or a year,” noted Leach.
The market is uneven: UK startups raised $17 billion in the first half of 2026, a 102% rise on the previous year, with AI companies securing $12.6 billion, Dealroom reports. According to Antler’s analysis of over 41,800 UK funding rounds, only 12% of British startups that raise a seed round go on to reach Series A.
The real challenge comes after the investment. Leach admits that sales cycles in these industries “might be harder.” Whether these 10 teams, with more than a third in slow-selling sectors, can beat that 12% is the key number to watch as they go for seed rounds.
