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Venture Firm Antler Made Over 400 Investments Last Year—and Just Reloaded With $160 Million
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By Marc Vartabedian, WSJ Pro
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Good day. Early-stage venture firm Antler has kicked its investment into overdrive in the last five years, doubling down on a high-volume strategy it says will pay off in the artificial intelligence era.
The firm, which primarily invests in founders to help them get startup ideas off the ground as well as early-stage companies, made over 400 investments in 2025, up from roughly 100 in 2020. Analytics firm Dealroom named Antler the most active global AI investor of 2024.
In 2026, the Singapore-based firm will begin the year with full coffers: A newly raised $160 million U.S.-focused fund will help take its deal count to roughly 500 investments this year, founder and Chief Executive Magnus Grimeland said. Closed in December, the new fund will enable Antler to double down on its thick-and-fast approach of spreading bets across the startup landscape, Grimeland said.
Antler’s multi-bet strategy stands out in a venture industry that is generally making fewer deals—even with the industry’s mad dash to AI. Analytics firm PitchBook Data estimated in the fall that there would be 12,422 U.S. venture deals in 2025 once the final count was in, a drop of nearly 20% from both 2024 and 2023. In the seed and pre-seed arenas—Antler’s turf—PitchBook estimated 2025’s tally would be 3,839, almost 30% less than in 2024.
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And now on to the news...
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SoftBank Group agreed to acquire DigitalBridge Group for $4 billion. PHOTO: KAZUHIRO NOGI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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The fate of PE. The private-equity landscape is littered with struggling firms seeking a shot of fresh capital from their bigger, more successful peers. But the long-awaited consolidation wave is unlikely to arrive this year, many people who work in the industry say.
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The pace of mergers and acquisitions among private-equity firms is rising, but structural challenges in combining buyout shops and scant demand for distressed firms still make them relatively rare, according to these people.
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Instead, struggling firms will likely limp along for another year in 2026, hoping to be bailed out by a market turnaround, rather than by a larger acquirer, say people who work in private equity.
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16%
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The rise in the S&P 500 last year, with a resilient economy, renewed interest-rate cuts and AI fervor propelling the index to 39 records.
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Hospitals Are a Proving Ground for What AI Can Do, and What It Can’t
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Big hospital systems have become the proving ground for widespread AI adoption, testing what the technology can do, but also revealing—sometimes via alarming mishaps—where it falls flat. Among health systems, 27% are paying for commercial AI licenses, triple the rate across the U.S. economy, according to a recent survey by Menlo Ventures and Morning Consult.
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Threat of California Billionaire Tax Draws Criticism From Ultrawealthy
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High-profile tech investors criticized a proposed tax on the ultrawealthy in California in the final hours of 2025, while some of the state’s big-name billionaires took steps to create distance between themselves and the Golden State. A proposed ballot initiative from a California healthcare union would impose a one-time, 5% tax on the assets of those with net worths above $1 billion who lived in the state as of Thursday. The tax would apply to assets like stocks, artwork and intellectual property rights, rather than income, and billionaires would have five years to pay.
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Here are WSJ Pro VC articles from the past week or so in case you are doing some post-holidays catch-up.
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MIT professor Max Tegmark wants to destigmatize the critiquing of AI development. ALEX GAGNE FOR WSJ
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24 Women in Venture Capital Who Made Partner or Higher at Firms like Khosla, Greylock, and Lightspeed in 2025 (Business Insider)
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