Early-stage VC firm Antler has appointed the co-founder of fintech unicorn Scalable Capital as a general partner.
Adam French will co-lead Antler’s UK team and funds in London alongside existing general partner Jed Rose.
Antler is a VC firm operating across six continents. The group backs early-stage startups, with recent UK investments including insurance payments platform Diesta in November last year and a £1.4m pot spread across 11 British startups last May.
French will also act as a chairman of Houghton Street Ventures, a VC group of which French is a founding partner. Houghton Street now sits under the formal fund management of Antler.
Houghton Street will continue to fulfil its existing funding mandate and support its own portfolio companies.
“Antler has established a reputation as one of the most active early-stage investors in the world, removing the barriers to entrepreneurship for diverse founders and increasing access to capital for founders at the start of their growth journey,” said French.
“There is an opportunity to build on the success of Antler’s first fund in the UK and make institutional-grade pre-seed funding available to the very best British founders.”
French co-founded Scalable Capital in 2014. The firm – a digital wealth and investment management platform – has raised $350m (£277.8m) with backers including BlackRock, Balderton Capital, Tencent and HV Capital.
Based in London, Munich and Berlin, Scalable Capital is currently valued at $1.4bn. French is also a non-executive director at British fintech trade body Innovate Finance.
“We are delighted to welcome Adam to the team and know his leadership will increase our ability to support a new generation of strong founders in the UK,” said Antler COO Vegard Medbo.
The post Antler appoints Scalable Capital founder as general partner appeared first on UKTN.
