Antler India

Choosing the right door

Antler India runs three routes and they are not interchangeable.

• The AI Residency is for a founding team that already exists, is building in AI, and can be in Bangalore full-time. It is currently between cohorts.
• Antler Direct is the always-open route. If you have a team and want a conversation rather than a programme, use this one. Antler India says about half its investments come this way.
• Before Day Zero is for people who have not started yet — no co-founder, no settled idea. It is free and invite-only.

If you are a solo founder hoping the residency will match you with a co-founder, read the eligibility again. In India that is what the community is for, not the residency.

How applications work

There is one general application form covering every Antler location. You give your name, email, an optional LinkedIn profile, the stage you are at, and the region and city — pick Bangalore. The stage choice matters: the early option routes to the India pre-seed team, while the later-stage option routes to Antler's separate global growth fund, which is not an India programme.

For the community, you join a waitlist through the Before Day Zero site. Entry is by referral from an existing member or by selection from that waitlist, so an introduction helps.

Antler India says outright that a mutual connection referring you works better than a cold application. If you know a portfolio founder or someone in the Bengaluru ecosystem close to the team, use them.

What reviewers look for

From what Antler India publishes, the signals are:

• A real team, committed full-time. Not a side project, and not a plan to quit later.
• Contact with users already. The stated ideal is teams actively experimenting with users to sharpen what the product should be.
• Ambition at day zero. Antler describes itself as backing people before the opportunity is obvious, so the interesting thing is the size of what you are chasing, not the metrics you have.
• AI, for now. The current stated focus is AI-first companies.

Before you commit

Two things to be clear-eyed about.

First, this is an equity investment, not a grant programme. Antler takes a stake in return for what it puts in, and the terms are published on its India page — read them there and decide for yourself whether the trade works at your stage.

Second, joining the residency does not mean you will be funded. Antler states that investment is not guaranteed and that it aims to back a majority, not all, of the teams that join. Plan for the case where you finish the three weeks without a cheque.

If nothing is open

When the residency is between cohorts, the page's own advice is to reach out directly rather than wait. The general form stays live year-round, and Antler India runs public events in Bengaluru you can turn up to in the meantime.

Antler India is the India arm of Antler, a global early-stage venture firm headquartered in Singapore. It backs founders at what it calls day zero — before there is traction, and often before there is a product — and it does so as an investor rather than as a grant-giving incubator: it puts money in and takes equity out. Antler announced its India launch in June 2020, starting in Bangalore under Rajiv Srivatsa, co-founder of Urban Ladder, and the team still works out of Bengaluru.

There are three ways to reach Antler India, and it is worth knowing which one fits you, because only two of them are open at any given moment.

How programmes work

The programme Antler India runs is the Antler India AI Residency, which its page describes as powered by Hancock Prospecting. It is short and dense. Selected teams get an investment decision within three weeks, and the first two weeks are spent in person in Bengaluru, in office space Antler provides. Those two weeks are built around intensive programming and one-to-one sessions with experienced AI builders and operators, covering product, fundraising and go-to-market, plus weekly office hours with Antler's general partners to stress-test whether the business can scale. Teams that are backed receive an upfront cheque for equity, a one-time grant towards expenses, and a large bundle of software and tooling perks.

Joining the residency is not the same as being funded. Antler says plainly that investment is not guaranteed, and its own pages give two different figures for how many cohort teams it expects to back — one section says more than sixty per cent, another says between half and three-quarters. Take the range, not either number.

As of late September 2026 the residency is between cohorts. The India page says the next residency will be announced and asks founders to get in touch directly in the meantime, and Antler's own cohort start dates calendar lists no India row at all — not a fixed date, and not a rolling intake either. So there is no open residency application and no published deadline today.

What is open is Antler Direct. Antler India says around half of its investments so far have been made outside the residency or any other programme, and it keeps a general application form running all year with Bangalore as a selectable city. If you already have a team and are moving fast, this is the faster door, and Antler notes that a warm introduction from someone who knows them helps.

The third route is Before Day Zero, a free community Antler runs in India for people who want to start a company but have not yet. It is aimed at experienced operators and domain experts who may have a germ of an idea, several ideas, or none at all, and its stated purpose includes helping members find a co-founder. There is no programme, no deadlines and no mandatory activities. Access is invite-only, through referrals from existing members and selective picks from a waitlist you can join online.

Who can apply

This is where Antler India differs from the reputation Antler has globally. Antler worldwide describes itself as backing people even before they have a team or an idea. The India residency asks for something more definite: strong teams committed full-time, actively experimenting with users to sharpen their product, building in AI, and available to join full-time in Bangalore. Its stated stage is pre-launch, pre-product or pre-revenue. So a solo founder with no idea is not who the residency is for — that founder belongs in Before Day Zero, which is exactly the route Antler India points them to.

Nothing on Antler India's pages asks for an incorporated company, a recognition certificate, a particular state of domicile, or any category of founder. The one hard requirement stated is being in Bangalore full-time.

Antler India says its current focus is AI-first startups, while adding that it will still hear from people building something exceptional in other areas. Its investment team is organised around SaaS, AI and deep tech; fintech, commerce and mobility; and consumer, health and brands. The India portfolio carries companies labelled B2B software, fintech, consumer tech, industrials, health and biotech, and proptech.

Scale

Antler India states that it has more than 115 India portfolio companies. That count is self-reported, undated, and covers the India arm only. Several figures shown alongside it on the same page belong to Antler worldwide rather than to India: the count of founders supported and the number of offices are both global, and Antler's own pages give the office count four different ways. Read anything about the global portfolio, global rankings or other countries' cohorts as the parent firm's, not Antler India's.

Who runs it

Antler India's operations and its India fund were set up by Rajiv Srivatsa and Nitin Sharma, who are both partners. The Bengaluru team named on the India page runs to fourteen people across investments, portfolio, finance and legal, marketing and community.

Locations

Bengaluru. A 2023 statement mentioned an intention to add a presence in Delhi NCR and Mumbai, but no current page names an office in either city, so treat Bengaluru as the only one. Antler advertises roles in Bengaluru on its global careers site, and Antler India lists its upcoming founder events publicly.