Inside Antler’s "Day Zero" strategy: backing founders before the first round

This week, investment firm Antler kicked off its Berlin residency. After an intense sprint, the most promising teams receive up to €500K in pre-seed funding — along with access to over €4 million in perks from world-class partners.

Antler has been backing startups in Germany, the Netherlands, France, and across Continental Europe for the last five years, investing in more than 180 companies. Many of these have become some of the region's fastest-growing tech ventures, including Lovable, Peec AI, NeoCarbon, and Klearly, with further backing from investors such as a16z, Coatue, and Accel. 

I wanted to learn more about Antler's novel approach to supporting early-stage startups. 

One of Antler's leading voices is Dr Christoph Klink, a Partner based in Berlin, who joined the firm in 2020 as it was building its regional presence.

"We started investing in 2021, so we've already gone through a full venture cycle — ups and downs included," he says.

Across Europe, Antler now has just over 500 portfolio companies, with hubs in London, the Nordics, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, and Munich. Klink stresses the importance of Antler's intentionally decentralised model.

"When founders launch a company, they rarely move across continents. They usually build locally. So we want to be as close to them as possible right from inception."

Inside the 'Day Zero' approach

At the heart of Antler's strategy is its 'day zero' investment approach — its six-month pre-seed, pre-launch program designed for founders at the very earliest stages.

"These may be people with little more than ambition, maybe a domain, maybe not even a co-founder yet," Klink explains.

The focus is on supporting founders as they kick into gear during the critical first period of building and growth.

"We get super excited about founders, and we're fine if, at the beginning, there are still a few rough edges to the business that need to be rounded off," Klink admits. 

"Quite often, we meet founders who have built an initial product but don't yet have the momentum to raise a full round. In such cases, we invite them into our office as part of a residency program. 

We bring founders into our offices, work closely with them, and then make our initial investment."

From there, Antler continues to back portfolio companies with follow-on investments. While the firm doesn't lead Series A rounds or beyond — "we prefer founders to team up with strong lead investors," Klink notes — it can invest up to €30 million per company over multiple rounds, supporting teams all the way through Series C.

From engineers to domain experts to generalists

According to Klink, Antler sees three main types of founder backgrounds:

Technical backgrounds: Think engineers, CTOs, people who can actually build.

"This is increasingly important; when you look at the top 10 US tech companies, 96 per cent of the founders had a technical background," he contends.

Domain experts: People with deep knowledge of a sector like payments, industrial tech, or manufacturing. That expertise and credibility are critical, especially in B2B contexts.

Generalists: Founders coming from commercial or operational roles. Increasingly, even generalists are using no-code tools to build prototypes themselves.

According to Klink, the most successful founders tend to share a set of common traits. He describes it as a "positive craziness" — the willingness to take on the risk of starting a company.

Resilience is just as critical, given the near-constant rejection from investors, customers, and potential hires that most entrepreneurs face. Strong communication skills are another essential aspect, as founders are "always selling," whether to staff, investors, regulators, or customers. 

Finally, humility and teamwork are integral as he believes that "most successful companies are built by co-founding teams, and while overlapping skills can be valuable, overlapping roles often lead to tension — this is one of the most common reasons startups fail."

Navigating Venture's hype cycles

To date, Antler has brought more than 1,400 startups into existence across all industries, with the goal of backing more than 6,000 by 2030. While Antler was founded in 2017 in Singapore, the European office began investing around 2020–21, a unique time in venture capital marked by notable trends.

According to Klink, Venture follows clear hype cycles.

"We saw Web3 and anything blockchain-related, then quick commerce, then fulfillment-by-Amazon roll-ups, and then climate tech.

Sadly, climate tech cooled off quite a bit, which is a huge loss for the planet. Many funds that were raised with a pure climate focus are now diversifying."

AI as a mega-cycle, not a fad

Now, of course, we're in the AI cycle. But Klink sees this as different to other hype cycles, contending that "it's a genuine technological mega-cycle, comparable to the personal computer, the internet, or cloud computing."

"And on the back of that technological mega cycle, there's a bunch of really, really cool stuff that's gonna be built. And I think that that allows a lot of things to happen, which is why I think it's a very, very interesting time to be building a business today and to be building in Europe."

AI accelerates development dramatically. For example, companies are reaching revenue faster because they can iterate quicker and with fewer resources. Release cycles that used to take months now take weeks or even days.

Klink is also seeing entirely new business models emerge that wouldn't have been possible a few years ago. For example, one of its portfolio companies, Peec AI is working on AI-powered search— "something you wouldn't have thought of as necessary 10 years ago, but which now feels indispensable," shared Klink.

However, he contends that this also means that once someone figures something out, everyone else quickly follows, so you can't afford to rest or you'll be left behind. 

"That's the flip side of rapid progress: the rules of the game have changed. We're back in a period where you need to move incredibly fast, stay close to your customers, and constantly react to both their needs and the competition. 

You have to build hand-in-hand with your customers, because your competitors will be doing the same. That's especially true in areas like AI, which evolve rapidly and remain uncertain. Honestly, no one really knows what the landscape will look like in five years."

When it comes to sector priorities for Antler, Klink highlighted four key areas:

Defence tech: Antler is open to dual-use companies. In June portfolio company Voltrac officially launched its autonomous, electric tractor platform designed for agriculture and frontline logistics. 

Robotics and hardware: Klink sees a resurgence in AI-enabled hardware, contending that climate tech showed VCs that you can't solve big problems with software alone—hardware matters.

"Now, software-enabled machines are getting real traction."

Cybersecurity: Klink argues that with the rise of hybrid threats targeting mission-critical infrastructure, the need for robust defences is only becoming more urgent.

Longevity and preventive health: People and insurers are focused on health prevention. Antler portfolio company Skleo Health is developing preventive eye-screening technology and aims to make preventive eye care more accessible by offering quick, non-invasive eye screenings in everyday locations, such as opticians, pharmacies, and workplaces. 

"Europe has rediscovered its voice"

While the halcyon days of 2021 and 2022 are over, Klink is optimistic about tech in Europe, asserting that Europe has rediscovered its voice. 

"Geopolitical shifts have forced the continent to show strength, and 2025 feels like a turning point. Europe had to find that voice for a long time, but didn't. Now it has.

We're seeing real scale stories — the second German decacorn Helsing just emerged — , and there are more exciting companies scaling across Europe." 

Klink admits that European founders are unlikely to out-raise international competitors, especially US companies, "So you have to out-execute. The good news is that AI helps level the playing field. With fewer resources, you can now achieve much more. Execution, customer traction, and speed are more important than ever."

Raise when you are ready

"In terms of early-stage funding, Klink advises founders to ensure they are solving a problem that's at the very top of your customers' agenda today. 

"Most VCs are generalists. If payments are scaling faster than cybersecurity, they'll invest in payments, not cybersecurity. So your problem has to be urgent and important to your customer right now." He advises companies to ship constantly, work closely with customers, and let fundraising be an outcome of building, not the other way around.

"Great founders build first and then raise."

Third, run a structured fundraising process. Reach out broadly, use warm introductions, and tap into the ecosystem. 

"Early-stage investment is a very people-centric bet, so you want investors to fall in love not just with your idea, but with you."

With this in mind, he stresses, finally, raise when you're ready — when you have the right proof points.

  "There is such a thing as raising too early. And remember: fundraising takes an enormous amount of time and energy. Don't let it distract you from actually building your business.

Lead image: Antler. Photo: uncredited.