Build your start-up in 8 weeks —with Antler in Nigeria
Start strong, scale fast with Antler in Nigeria.
From day zero, we support and mentor founders driving innovation forward.
Build your start-up in 8 weeks —with Antler in Nigeria
Start strong, scale fast with Antler in Nigeria.
From day zero, we support and mentor founders driving innovation forward.
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Join a curated network to find co-founders who complement your skills and vision
Get hands-on mentorship from experienced founders and operators who’ve built and scaled successful startups
Teams ready to pitch will present to our Investment Committee which decided which team gets funding
Scale your startup with a global partner that offers expertise and connections in over 30 locations worldwide
Who is Antler in Nigeria for?
We’re looking for people committed to turning their ambitious ideas into game-changing businesses. We work with founders regardless of background or geography—from experienced business operators to technologists and entrepreneurs. Whether you've just started building, but haven't yet raised capital; you've got an idea and are thinking about getting started, but haven't quite made the leap; or you don't have an idea but are determined to be an entrepreneur, Antler is the right place for you to bring your idea to life. We accept applications from individuals and teams.
Individuals
Looking for a co-founder?
Start Date: June 2025
Are you an individual ready to start something new, and looking for the right co-founder?
Antler brings together an exclusive group of ambitious people to explore ideas together in an 8 week in-person program in Lagos. Meet, learn, and co-create with exceptional builders. Post program, our fund can invest $100k for 10% in teams that pass the Antler Investment Committee. To support in a tough funding environment, we also make available an additional $100k to match your next investor ticket and terms.
Join us to turn your startup vision into reality!
Teams
Already have the dream team?
Start Date: Rolling Intake
Early-stage teams with an MVP or early customer validation are welcome to apply to Antler for direct investment into their ongoing Pre-Seed or early Seed rounds.
Antler in Nigeria works with early stage startup teams to rapidly gain traction through coaching and networking. If you are a team building an early product, or have just launched your MVP, or seeking an additional co-founder, you are welcome to apply. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. Antler can join your ongoing pre-seed / early seed round with $100-400K tickets at a negotiated valuation.
The application process
The application process takes about 2-3 weeks to complete. Once you apply, our scouting team will guide you through the entire process and will be available to answer all your questions.
Apply
If applying as an individual, submit your application on antler.co/apply using your LinkedIn URL or CV.
If applying with an existing early-stage startup, you apply as a team and include your pitch deck along with a CV or LinkedIn URL for your co-founder(s) if any.
For Individual Applicants (No existing start-up)
Initial Alignment and Drive Interview
After reviewing your application, one of our scouting team members will conduct a 30-minute interview. This session assesses your drive, motivations, and alignment with the program to determine if Antler is the right fit for you and vice versa. Be prepared to share:
- Why you’re applying to Antler.
- Why now is the right time for you.
- What unique qualities and experiences you bring to the table.
Partner Interview
The next stage is an in-depth interview with one of our partners. Depending on your profile, this will involve either a technical or business problem-solving discussion. Specific instructions will be shared beforehand, so you’ll know what to prepare for.
Coffee Chat
This final-round assessment is a 1-hour conversation designed to explore your leadership qualities and overall alignment with Antler’s vision. It’s an opportunity for us to understand your journey and leadership style in a more casual setting.
For Existing Start-ups
Pitch Interview
If you are applying with an existing startup, you may be shortlisted (based on your pitchdeck) to present your pitch on a call or in-person. When shortlisted, be prepared to:
Share your pitch deck or demo your MVP (if available)
Answer questions about the idea, team, and vision
We’ll also use this time to ask questions about the idea and the team, but also to answer your burning questions on what a collaboration with—and ultimately an investment from—Antler could look like.
What to expect once you join Antler in Nigeria
While all Antler programs are similar, each location takes a tailored approach to ensure founders have the greatest chance of success. If you are a founder at the idea stage, Antler programs in Nigeria run for 8 weeks where founders join the community to build a brand new startup from scratch (see details below). We also offer investment for early-stage startups following an individualized timeline and path.
01 Team formation, ideation, and validation
This stage of the program lasts 5 weeks and will consist of elements including:
- Social events and team-building activities to help you identify possible co-founders you like to work with in the community
- Masterclasses and speaker sessions covering highly relevant topics for your startup journey (e.g., unit economics, fundraising best practices, and growth hacking.)
- Team sprints to push your ideation and innovation
- Regular speaker sessions on interesting topics for entrepreneurs
- Weekly touch points with coaching from the Antler team
- VC meetups that will allow you to build relationships and challenge your ideas
- Peer support and regular feedback from your fellow community members
02 Sharpening your value proposition
- During this 3 week stage of the program, you will dedicate your full-time efforts to refine your idea and business model, with strong customer focus and interaction. You sharpen up the details of your business plan, and start preparing for the Antler Investment Committee (IC). This stage of the program will consist of elements including:
- Weekly coaching sessions with a dedicated coach from the Antler team and support from our venture partners and local network of industry experts
- Legal advisory sessions (with lawyers) to refine your idea and business model in light of regulatory requirements and constraints
- Advice and support in identifying additional team members to fill critical skill gaps in your founding team structure (if required)
- Weekly pitch training sessions with feedback from the Antler team and fellow founders
- Targeted pitch deck reviews, Q&A sessions, and pitch trainings ahead of IC
03 Pitch to Antler’s Investment Committee
At the end of the program, teams deemed ready will pitch to our Investment Committee (IC). The IC votes on which teams receive an investment.
The investment
For those in the residency program
Post program, our fund can invest $100k for 10% in teams that pass the Antler Investment Committee. To support in a tough funding environment, we also make available an additional $100k to match your next investor ticket and terms.
For those with existing startups
Antler can join your ongoing pre-seed / early seed round with $100-400K tickets at a negotiated valuation.
Meet an Antler partner Thursday at 1PM CET
Join us for an open session with one of our partners to discuss how we work with founders and what to expect
How Antler in MENAP Works
Learn what to expect at Antler - from our application process to our 10-week residencies, held twice a year.
FAQs
By helping thousands of founders launch and scale the next generation of great companies that address some of the most pressing challenges of our time, we move society forward and make progress a certainty.
We encourage you to apply if you are a founder grappling with an ambitious problem statement, with unique insight into how to solve it, and have a strong tech/business background. Most founders joining Antler’s programs have 5-15 years of prior work experience.
We typically accept founders that are pre-product. Antler helps early-stage founders iterate, improve, and articulate the problem they want to solve, and helps refine the quality of their solutions. Founders also will benefit from prior validation of the problem/solution (user research, stakeholder conversations, and prototype experiments) in the community.
Antler in Nigeria can help founders come up with an idea from scratch. However, founders must be interested in going after ideas and problems with a unique/deep insight and take quick steps to validate them. We understand that things change quickly with rapid iteration and customer feedback. Some founders may change their idea entirely in the first few weeks.
We are sector agnostic and welcome startups from any industry, with innovation as our primary criterion. We invest in both tech and tech-light businesses, emphasizing the importance of using creative and impactful solutions to address market needs. While not every business needs technology as its core driver, we seek founders leveraging innovation—whether through tech-enabled processes or unique approaches—to build competitive, scalable, and transformative ventures.
Yes, we bring together founders from different backgrounds/skills and provide an environment to interact and form connections based on aligned goals and values. Antler does not assign co-founders, with the matching decision ultimately left to the founders.
At Antler, we invest in the leader of the team and respect their decision to choose a co-founder. If you already have a co-founder, we welcome this as part of your journey. While your co-founder does not need to apply separately, we do require the opportunity to meet them and assess their suitability for the program to ensure alignment and support the venture's success.
We also accept founders and teams who have already launched their products. Antler helps these teams accelerate product-market fit and growth, and gain access to further rounds of capital. Early-stage startups do not necessarily go through the program as some startups will likely be too advanced and hence will only be evaluated for a direct investment.
Finding your first backers is an outstanding achievement. Typically, founders and teams who have raised in previous rounds will go through our acceleration track.
For individuals: You will be interviewing with Antler team members and partners to evaluate your background, your motivation to join Antler, your problem-solving abilities, and your ability to work with others. You do not need a deck for these interviews—these are conversations to get to know you better.
For existing pre-seed/seed startups: You will be interviewing Antler team members and partners to discuss your startup, team, and motivations. Upon receiving your application, we will shortlist founders for an introductory pitch call.
For ideas built from scratch at Antler through our programs: If the Antler Investment Committee (IC) determines that your team and idea are exciting and viable, your team may receive an investment from the Antler Africa Fund. The Antler Africa fund will then provide $100k for 10% shareholding. To support in a tough funding environment, we make available an additional $100k to match your next investor ticket and terms.
For existing pre-seed/seed startups: If the Antler IC determines that your team and idea are exciting and viable, Antler can join your ongoing pre-seed / early seed round with $100-400K tickets at a negotiated valuation.
The Antler in Nigeria community is open to founders across Africa who are committed to relocating to Lagos and building their product in this market. For the upcoming cohort, we are specifically focused on founders who see the value of immersing themselves in the vibrant Lagos ecosystem during the first phase of the program and are dedicated to establishing their ventures within this market.
Accelerators typically start working with preformed teams who have identified a product-market fit. Getting to that stage can be incredibly challenging. You need a team, a network of advisors, and access to capital. Antler removes these barriers related to entrepreneurship for people who are interested in starting a company from day one. We identify and invest in exceptional individuals and early-stage teams with the potential to build global companies. We are a founder-led VC located in 30 locations with 1300+ portfolio companies representing 40 industries. We don’t just invest, we create an ecosystem for great companies to be built.
How is Antler different from other accelerators?
Accelerators typically start working with preformed teams who have identified a product-market fit. Getting to that stage can be incredibly challenging. You need a team, a network of advisors, and access to capital. Antler removes these barriers related to entrepreneurship for people who are interested in starting a company from day one. We identify and invest in exceptional individuals and early-stage teams with the potential to build global companies. We are a founder-led VC located in 30 locations with 1300+ portfolio companies representing 40 industries. We don’t just invest, we create an ecosystem for great companies to be built.
Antler companies worldwide are driving innovation and tackling big problems.
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Antler portfolio companies raise capital from other leading VCs
We are empowering Antler founders through strategic partnerships with leading institutions across the region
Meet the team
Anil is a Partner at Antler Africa, based in Lagos. He has an impressive track record that includes founding Toronto’s first restaurant delivery service, he is no stranger to leveraging pioneering technology to disrupt traditional industries. He has spent the better part of the last two decades, building and scaling businesses across diverse sectors in Nigeria, including FMCG, renewable energy, agro-allied industries, and construction. His hands-on operational consulting for major startups such as Jumia, along with advisory services for over 100 startups, showcases his extensive experience supporting entrepreneurs across various stages of growth.
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Meet our Antler in MENAP Venture Partners & Advisors
Mike is a Partner at Antler Australia and co-leads the Australia operations. He's a seasoned operator and investor who kickstarted his career in equity capital markets and mergers and acquisitions.Mike's journey with Uber began as the second employee in Asia and the 121st globally. As the Head of Operations for Australia and New Zealand, he played a pivotal role in building a thriving multi-billion-dollar business locally. Over the course of six years, he witnessed the local team's remarkable growth, scaling it from just three members to a formidable team of over 500. This experience gave him invaluable insights into scaling businesses and driving growth in challenging markets.Following his time at Uber, Mike co-founded and led Kaddy, a B2B marketplace. Under his leadership as CEO, Kaddy was acquired for $34 million within three years. Mike also brings over 20 years of investment experience, including numerous direct and indirect angel investments. His diverse background and extensive experience have made him a sought-after advisor and mentor, offering valuable insights to early stage businesses.
FAQs
By helping thousands of founders launch and scale the next generation of great companies that address some of the most pressing challenges of our time, we move society forward and make progress a certainty.
We encourage you to apply if you are a founder grappling with an ambitious problem statement, with unique insight into how to solve it, and have a strong tech/business background. Most founders joining Antler’s programs have 5-15 years of prior work experience.
We typically accept founders that are pre-product. Antler helps early-stage founders iterate, improve, and articulate the problem they want to solve, and helps refine the quality of their solutions. Founders also will benefit from prior validation of the problem/solution (user research, stakeholder conversations, and prototype experiments) in the community.
Antler in Nigeria can help founders come up with an idea from scratch. However, founders must be interested in going after ideas and problems with a unique/deep insight and take quick steps to validate them. We understand that things change quickly with rapid iteration and customer feedback. Some founders may change their idea entirely in the first few weeks.
We are sector agnostic and welcome startups from any industry, with innovation as our primary criterion. We invest in both tech and tech-light businesses, emphasizing the importance of using creative and impactful solutions to address market needs. While not every business needs technology as its core driver, we seek founders leveraging innovation—whether through tech-enabled processes or unique approaches—to build competitive, scalable, and transformative ventures.
Yes, we bring together founders from different backgrounds/skills and provide an environment to interact and form connections based on aligned goals and values. Antler does not assign co-founders, with the matching decision ultimately left to the founders.
At Antler, we invest in the leader of the team and respect their decision to choose a co-founder. If you already have a co-founder, we welcome this as part of your journey. While your co-founder does not need to apply separately, we do require the opportunity to meet them and assess their suitability for the program to ensure alignment and support the venture's success.
We also accept founders and teams who have already launched their products. Antler helps these teams accelerate product-market fit and growth, and gain access to further rounds of capital. Early-stage startups do not necessarily go through the program as some startups will likely be too advanced and hence will only be evaluated for a direct investment.
Finding your first backers is an outstanding achievement. Typically, founders and teams who have raised in previous rounds will go through our acceleration track.
For individuals: You will be interviewing with Antler team members and partners to evaluate your background, your motivation to join Antler, your problem-solving abilities, and your ability to work with others. You do not need a deck for these interviews—these are conversations to get to know you better.
For existing pre-seed/seed startups: You will be interviewing Antler team members and partners to discuss your startup, team, and motivations. Upon receiving your application, we will shortlist founders for an introductory pitch call.
For ideas built from scratch at Antler through our programs: If the Antler Investment Committee (IC) determines that your team and idea are exciting and viable, your team may receive an investment from the Antler Africa Fund. The Antler Africa fund will then provide $100k for 10% shareholding. To support in a tough funding environment, we make available an additional $100k to match your next investor ticket and terms.
For existing pre-seed/seed startups: If the Antler IC determines that your team and idea are exciting and viable, Antler can join your ongoing pre-seed / early seed round with $100-400K tickets at a negotiated valuation.
The Antler in Nigeria community is open to founders across Africa who are committed to relocating to Lagos and building their product in this market. For the upcoming cohort, we are specifically focused on founders who see the value of immersing themselves in the vibrant Lagos ecosystem during the first phase of the program and are dedicated to establishing their ventures within this market.
Accelerators typically start working with preformed teams who have identified a product-market fit. Getting to that stage can be incredibly challenging. You need a team, a network of advisors, and access to capital. Antler removes these barriers related to entrepreneurship for people who are interested in starting a company from day one. We identify and invest in exceptional individuals and early-stage teams with the potential to build global companies. We are a founder-led VC located in 30 locations with 1300+ portfolio companies representing 40 industries. We don’t just invest, we create an ecosystem for great companies to be built.
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