British Business Bank has made a £25M cornerstone commitment to Antler’s UK Fund II, its first ever investment in the firm
The fund, Antler’s largest single-location fund globally, will back UK founders from day zero with initial cheques of up to £500K
UK seed and venture-stage startups raised £5.69 billion in 2024, more than during the peak year of 2021, signalling a sustained recovery in early-stage capital
Most venture capital firms wait. They want traction, revenue, proof. Antler does the opposite: it walks into a room of talented people with no company yet and bets that the right support from day zero produces better founders than the market currently gets. Now, the British government’s own development bank has decided that model is worth £25 million.
British Business Bank has made a £25M cornerstone commitment to Antler‘s UK Fund II, the institution’s first ever investment in the firm. The new fund will become Antler’s largest single-location fund globally, led by UK partners Adam French, Hannah Leach, and Jed Rose. It joins a syndicate of primarily UK-based limited partners, including Lloyds Banking Group, reflecting growing institutional appetite for backing Britain’s earliest-stage innovation pipeline.
