For many early stage investors in India, 2024 was a post-correction year, but even then seed funding saw a 31% YoY increase compared to 2023. And 2025 is the year for big, bold bets, believes Antler India partner Nitin Sharma

“I would love to see more founders who are thinking more boldly, and even if it means that their product needs to involve hardware, deeptech, robotics. All of this used to be very difficult even five years ago, but the ecosystem has changed, and we have the chance now,” Antler India’s Sharma told Inc42.

Hundreds of early-stage funds and investors are competing for these new-age innovators. Having invested in 85 startups since inception, Antler has backed founders on the cutting-edge of tech.

In 2024, Antler invested in 30 startups, many of which were developed in Antler’s Residency programme, “where founders have the opportunity to validate their ideas, build strong teams, and get early customer traction before raising their first round,” Sharma added.

Most recently, Antler’s portfolio has grown to include the likes of fashion retail marketplace Bizup, AI-powered mobility hardware startup Cautio and kitchen automation startup Freshcon. Besides this, the fund has backed the likes of HireBound, aluminium-air fuel cell startup Meine Electric, and solar energy platform Sustvest. For Sharma, these startups represent the next big wave of innovation coming from the maturing deeptech sector.

Seed stage startups raised $893 Mn during the year, however, fewer deals were recorded at this stage during the year. Inc42 data reveals that the average ticket size of seed stage funding witnessed a 25% spike in the year gone by. This shows the growing appetite for early stage bets among investors such as Antler.

Sector-wise, seed-stage enterprise tech startups were favourite picks for early stage investors, and here, there’s a big change coming with the AI revolution disrupting the best laid plans of SaaS giants.

In the four years since the launch of the India operations, Antler India has crossed 64,000 applications, Sharma told Inc42.

He claims this is one of the largest funnels for early institutional funds, and Antler has boiled it down to 85 investments thus far. “We are blessed to have more than 150 LPs including more than 10 institutions from both India and abroad, and this is now the largest first fund within Antler overall globally.”

In 2025, the firm plans to invest in around 100 startups, and with early stage AI booming in India, naturally Sharma is bullish about where Indian founders can take this wave.

At the same time, the Antler India partner feels that Indian founders have not yet gone deeper into AI workflows and there is a gap, which can be filled once entrepreneurs start capitalising on products in the AI economy for sectors such as travel,........

© Inc42