Antler, the global early-stage VC firm, has invested nearly £1M in eight new UK tech startups. The firm’s latest London founder residency attracted more than 5,000 aspiring founders — the highest number since Antler’s UK launch four years ago.
As of early 2025, London’s tech ecosystem is valued at $625.1 billion, with 43 active unicorns, positioning it as Europe’s top tech hub alongside Silicon Valley and New York. This valuation represents a significant increase from previous years, with the UK’s innovation ecosystem reaching a combined enterprise value of $1.2 trillion, marking a 20% increase compared to 2023 and a ninefold increase over the past decade.
Adam French, Partner at Antler, commented, “The UK is the world’s third-largest tech ecosystem and a global powerhouse for AI innovation. London, in particular, attracts record numbers of AI founders, tapping into its world-class talent pool to build cutting-edge AI products and tools at scale. At Antler, we are thrilled to back this new wave of AI entrepreneurs — visionary founders shaping the future of AI from the UK.”
Antler’s latest London residency, with 85 participating founders, was their largest in the UK and their most selective. Less than 2% of applicants were accepted. This selectivity exemplifies Antler’s unique approach: they take no equity and charge no fees during the program, deciding to invest only after a 6-8 week mutual evaluation period.
Antler portfolio: AI-powered solutions transforming multiple industries
The eight new London-based startups leverage AI technologies to drive innovation across major global industries, spanning B2B software, health tech, ed tech, proptech, cybersecurity, and fintech. This AI-centric approach reflects the UK tech ecosystem’s growth, with the sector drawing approximately £200 million in daily private investment since mid-2024.
Sarah Finegan, Associate Partner at Antler, told TFN: “These startups are all using AI to address major challenges in a range of different industries. In many cases, the founders have deep domain expertise and are using AI to build technologies that address problems and inefficiencies they have faced firsthand. This aligns with Antler’s investment thesis, which emphasises founders with specific qualities: velocity (execution bias), magnetism (ability to attract investors/talent), relentlessness, and a unique “spike” of expertise.
Three of the startups are focused on healthcare. They are building AI to automate regulatory compliance for MedTech companies, automate healthcare administration for doctors, and improve learning platforms for doctors. Another company is building an AI cybersecurity assistant to guide people facing cyber attacks in real time. Pesto is using AI to improve supply chains in food manufacturing, helping food companies understand the availability and cost of their ingredients.
This is just further testament to the extent to which AI is now a central part of every industry.”
Fostering UK’s next generation of tech leaders
New companies in Antler’s portfolio showcase some of the UK’s most promising entrepreneurs. Among them is Kate Hofman, co-founder of Pesto, an AI-powered platform optimising food ingredient supply chains. Hofman previously founded GrowUp Farms, a vertical farming company that raised £100M, and was named one of the UK’s top ten most influential women by The Grocer.
Seven of the eight pre-seed startups from Antler’s latest UK portfolio are now public, with one remaining in stealth mode. The public companies include Klaris (healthtech), Pesto (B2B software), Praktiki (healthtech and edtech), Synthax (healthtech), Stay Liquid (fintech), Fortyx (cybersecurity), and FixoAI (proptech).
Finegan added: “Our founders blend real-world industry experience with technical expertise. This combination allows them to create market-ready technologies while leveraging their professional backgrounds, enabling rapid development and deployment of best-in-class solutions.”
Antler’s approach: due diligence and diversity focus
The decision-making process for Antler investments begins with the first interview and continues throughout the residency. Finegan explained: “Of course, we consider the quality of the business idea, product-market fit, and the size of the addressable market, but as an inception investor, the most important question is whether we have conviction in the founders themselves.
We use the residency to do due diligence on the founders, seeing how they react under pressure, interact with people, work rate, ability to pivot, and speed of execution. This means we can make a considered judgment on the founders at the very start of their growth journey.”
Once startups secure initial investment from Antler, the real work begins. Antler’s portfolio companies gain access to a global community of founders, VCs, and operators within its network. The VC connects them to individuals who can accelerate their growth, working closely with the startups to provide direct support in areas such as fundraising, revenue management, marketing, and product development. The vast majority of the Antler team possesses direct entrepreneurial experience, equipping them with the knowledge of what it takes to build a startup in its early days
Antler’s commitment to diversity is evident through its initiatives, including a target of 30% women founders per cohort and structured interviews to reduce bias. Finegan concluded: “ Antler is committed to supporting a new generation of try best founders worldwide in a way that recognises that talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. We have a robust scouting strategy to ensure we engage founders from under-represented communities.
In addition to the work they do at Antler, a number of people in our UK team lead initiatives and campaigns to bring more diverse founders into tech and VC.”
UK early-stage tech investment shows growth despite market uncertainty
This latest investment of nearly £1M represents a slight increase from Antler’s Spring 2024 Residency, where the firm invested £840,000 in seven British pre-seed tech startups. The increase in total investment and the number of companies suggests incrementally growing confidence in the UK early-stage market despite broader economic uncertainties.
Compared to Antler’s October 2022 investment of £960,000 in eight UK technology startups, the consistent investment level over multiple years demonstrates a stable strategic commitment to the UK market. This contrasts with competitors who have reduced early-stage investments amid global economic fluctuations.
For the broader UK tech ecosystem, Antler’s strategic investment approach signals continued international confidence in Britain’s capacity to produce globally competitive technology companies, particularly in emerging AI-driven sectors. Their focus on AI-native solutions positions them at the intersection of key growth vectors in the UK technology landscape, illustrating a sophisticated framework for early-stage capital deployment in an increasingly competitive ecosystem.
