With early-stage venture capital funding slowing sharply in Southeast Asia, Antler, a global early-stage VC firm based in Singapore, announced on Wednesday that it invested $7.4 million in startups across the region in the first half of 2025.
The firm said in a statement that the Antler-funded startups in H1 2025 span key innovation hubs across Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia, reflecting the region’s growing depth of entrepreneurial talent and artificial intelligence (AI) capability.
As part of this investment, Antler is focusing heavily on AI startups, putting $2.8 million into seven AI companies that graduated from AI Disrupt—a new four-week, in-person program for teams with an MVP and early-stage customers using their core AI technology.
This move strengthens Antler’s position as the world’s most active AI investor, after making 74 AI investments globally in 2024.
Run from Singapore, AI Disrupt is designed to help promising AI startups grow faster. It supports companies that already have strong customer traction, offering customised help to scale their marketing strategies and technical capabilities quickly.
“With the speed of product development made possible through technology today, we are matching that with our support to founders and investment into startups,” said Winnie Khoo, Partner at Antler.
“AI startups are moving 10x faster than just 2 years ago, and AI Disrupt is purpose-built for founders with market-validated products to move and scale much faster.
“These AI founders do not wait. Moving aggressively is a moat that founders can gain in the AI age,” she added.
Each of the seven chosen startups received $400,000 in funding after completing a four-week program focused on go-to-market strategy, scalability, and fast growth.
During the program, they also got access to over $650,000 worth of cloud computing, infrastructure, and AI-specific tools to help them build and grow faster.
The startups funded through Antler AI Disrupt include Iris, which offers autonomous no-code agents for workflow automation and data collection; Nugen, which builds domain-specific AI to improve reliability in specialized agent workflows; IndustrialMind.ai, which provides intelligence solutions to optimize manufacturing operations; Lambdai Space, which uses AI-driven radar imaging to deliver actionable climate and insurance insights; Anamaya AI, which aggregates and optimizes corporate travel using AI; AppSecAI, which automates application security to speed up software delivery; and 5.Y (GLUCOSE), which enables autonomous customer engagement and personalization in complex industries.
According to the statement, Southeast Asia’s early-stage venture market faced headwinds in the first half of 2025, marked by a 68 percent year-over-year decline in seed funding and a 53% drop in overall early-stage investments.
For many founders, the current climate means longer fundraising timelines, stricter investor checks and fewer options for follow-on funding.
In response, Antler is focusing on carefully selected, high-potential AI startups, offering larger initial investments and tailored support to help them scale quickly.
This approach shows Antler’s belief that emerging technologies will power the region’s next phase of growth and innovation.
“The current funding landscape across Southeast Asia in early 2025 demands that founders be sharper than ever in both their approach and execution,” said Jussi Salovaara, Co-founder and Managing Partner Asia at Antler.
“We are prepared to match their speed and provide flexible early capital that enables them to accelerate, but we are also more selective,
“Once a team can demonstrate a compelling use case for their technology and the ambition to scale globally, we will back them with conviction,” he added.
Applications are now open for the next AI Disrupt program, which starts on October 21, 2025, in Singapore.
The program will focus on helping AI-first companies strengthen their technical advantages and boost go-to-market traction through targeted coaching, in-depth technical sessions with industry partners, and investor readiness training.
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