Scaling with Purpose: Antler’s Global Thesis on Intentionality & Outlier Returns w/ Rosalind Bazany

SCS (Intro): 

Today on billion dollar moves. We're joined by Rosalind Bazany, Head of ESG and Impact at Antler, one of the world's most active and selective early stage venture capital firms with 27 offices across six continents. From a childhood shaped by global moves and a paratrooper dad to navigating hedge funds during the global financial crisis, Ross brings a rare systems thinking lens to venture.

Antler is one of our pledge partner funds at Beyond the Billion, our global initiative, where GPS and LPs commit self-defined capital targets. To its investing in women founded companies. This week we're proud to celebrate a major milestone. Over $1 billion has now been deployed by our pledge funds into women founders. At Antler,

Ros is helping to redefine what it means to invest early with intentionality, inclusion, and commercial grid. With nearly 3000 women supported through their global founder residencies and over 40% of their portfolio qualifying as impact companies. All without a formal mandate, but the pledge. This conversation is a masterclass in purpose built scale.

Let's dive in.

Rosalind Bazany: 

I grew up kind of all over the world, so Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ireland, Cyprus, England. My mom was a teacher. My dad was a paratrooper. So I think what really sort of shaped me and my entire sort of life and career is that adaptability and, and curiosity were pretty much kind of baked into me from childhood.

I studied chemistry, thought I was gonna be a scientist. But after my master's, I fell into recruiting, and to be honest, it was just to pay my rent and move to London. And then I ended up recruiting myself into a hedge fund. And I spent three years there and also experienced the global financial crisis at that time.

And to be honest, I had no idea about capital markets. And it was quite a shock, but an incredible experience for me. And then after that, I spent 11 years in asset management. And, uh, during that time I moved from London to Singapore with Schroders. And then four years ago I joined Antler and sort of stepped into this world of venture capital.

I did n never really had a kind of grand plan around my career, but I know that I've been really lucky with my experiences. I'd say sort of. The, the common thread across my career is probably how much I'm drawn to systems thinking. So whether that's around people or human behavior or markets or, you know, my chemistry days molecules.

I really like the kind of complicated stuff where answers aren't always obvious and now I get to do. Kind of apply that way of thinking to help founders actually navigate complexity and uncertainty and build companies that solve real problems. And it's been an incredibly rewarding time. 

SCS: 

Yeah. So before you gloss over, did you say your father was a paratrooper?

Rosalind Bazany: 

Yes. That's right. 

SCS: 

What does that involve and how did that, I guess, role model, career life for you as a kid?  

Rosalind Bazany: 

Well, I think my father was desperate for me to join the military. So a paratrooper is a sort of a special group within the army where they literally throw themselves out of airplanes, parachute in, and work on specific kind of programs all over the world.

And hence that's why I've moved many different countries, I think at loss count. My brother and I were saying that we hit 41 homes in 40 years. I'd say that probably has shaped a lot of the way that I am as an individual today. 

SCS: 

Yeah. And so jumping in, flying off a plane, uh, that sounds a little bit like you, although you did it slightly differently.

Tell us a little bit about how you decided to join. I mean, from Schroders to Antler that was founded by, as we know, Magnus, who grew up frankly on a farm and then decided to become this massive entrepreneur. How did you decide, like this was going to be the firm for me for, you know, the next couple years?

Rosalind Bazany: 

It's a good question. It's funny because I often think about that time when I was first introduced to Antler and it was at a time where I spent a really long time in financial services and I had a wonderful career. I was working with incredible people and I really enjoyed it, but I was looking for something different.

And I blame COVID because I think during COVID was a time where everybody had these sort of existential crises and I wanted to explore something different. And when I learned more about Antler and its completely unique model to me, it just made a lot of sense coming in at a point, very early stage, exactly at a point where founders need support, they need community and they need capital.

And the more I learned about Antler, the more people I met and saw how ambitious and sort of crazy they were in what they wanted to build. I had to be part of it. And that's the honest answer. 

SCS: 

Love it. And tell us a little bit about the structure for those of us that are not familiar with how Antler has built their infrastructure and platform. And of course it is global. We are on the heels actually beyond the building. We're headed to, uh, one of our summits in Finland, uh, LP Summit in Finland. So know that you, you all have just raised a hundred million in the Nordics as well, so very global. Tell us a little bit about, you know, the story with Antler and how it's built up to become.

Rosalind Bazany: 

So I like to think of it that we were really sort of solving a problem, and it was sort of a big problem because startups were failing and they were failing for the wrong reasons, really. It was, you know, bad product market fit team issues or lack of a team, and then an inability to raise capital.

And there's many different reasons for that. But what Magnus decided was that there's all this incredible talent out there and we can provide a platform, where they can come and address those risks. So we get about 160,000 applications from founders a year. We invite a very small percentage of those to come and join a residency program, and that'll be in all of our locations around the world, and they spend anywhere between six and 12 weeks with us.

We help them find co-founders, we validate their product ideas, and then we offer the chance to receive capital at the end of it. We've been cited very often as now the world's most active venture capital firm globally. But I also like to add that we're the most selective as well, because when you take that funnel and actually looking at who we're funding, it is incredibly selective.

And we started here in Singapore, made our first investment in 2018. We're now in 27 offices around the world. So that's across six continents. We've invested in over 1500 portfolio companies from pre-seed up to series C, and we have a community of over 12,000 founders now. So it's been quite a journey in a short period of time, but I think it points to the fact that this type of model was very much needed. 

SCS: 

For most of us, we have the Y Combinator comparison. How different is the model of Antler versus YC? 

Rosalind Bazany: 

I think the first thing is just how early we come in. So when we choose to invest in companies, we typically value them. And this is, you know, it varies slightly from location to location.

Typically at $1 million and then we take 10%. But then the real important work starts after the residency. So that's where we help founders, you know, find their customers. We help them think about taking this product to market. We help them fundraise. And it's all about that sort of early growth and helping them scale.

And what I love is that, you know, when we first started it was still very early stage in terms of kind of pre-seed seed investments. But then, you know, we naturally matured and added more products to our suite to actually support founders over a longer term and hence taking us to Series C. So I think that relationship over a really long period of time is helpful for founders.

And I'd say that our global footprint is also incredibly helpful as companies look to enter new markets, or as we've seen a lot recently, where they want to hire teams in different markets and they tap into our founder community to actually find those first hires. And they've kind of had the rubber stamp of approval from Antler having gone through the residencies.

SCS: 

I've heard Magnus and a few of your team members speak about how you invest in the founders, right? It is not really the idea you're backing the people, so you must have some really interesting metrics or psych analysis on what characters work together with how teams are best built and things like that.

Can you share a little bit about, you know, some of the insights, of course, it's, it's not always a hundred percent fit, it's almost like matchmaking that you're really doing except for building a startup. Share with us some interesting insights, something that you've learned from this whole, I guess, massive experiment of building teams and then some of the other success stories there.

Rosalind Bazany: 

Well, I think the first thing is it is so crucial. In the early stages to find somebody that has complimentary skills and to work together with, uh, a mutual ambition of what you want to create. But obviously in the early stages, there's a lot happens. Priorities are shifting all the time, different pressures happen, but what we can do with our program, our residency, is to help teams through that process.

Now, in terms of your question about sort of, uh. Personalities. Now, this is something where obviously the enormous amount of data that we have internally is helping us to give signals or indicators that we can start to recognize and see some patterns emerging about. What makes founders successful? What makes teams successful?

But ultimately, when you're coming in as early as we do, it's that sort of that spike that we are looking for. Do they have the determination? Are they able to build incredible teams? Are they gonna be able to win customers, and are they gonna stick through this through challenging times? And that's ultimately what it kind of comes down to.

And certainly from speaking to partners at Antler all around the world, they've started to kind of recognize actually who's going to be capable of being a, a truly successful founder. And what I should say is also that, you know, this isn't just about first time founders. We have a large number of.

Seasoned entrepreneurs that, that come and join our program because they recognize that what we offer is something that they're just not able to find elsewhere. And it's wonderful to hear those stories where they say, I never would've met this, my co-founder, or I never would've been able to get to, you know, series B if I hadn't have had that support from Antler.

And that's what we're all about, ultimately. 

SCS: 

What have you learned, I guess, um, if a founder is building right now, right from one to 10? 'cause it sounds like you've done all the way from zero to one, to one to 10 as well. And in supporting the founder in building teams, I guess from zero to one and one to 10, what is a critical mindset to have in making sure that your team is set up for success?

Rosalind Bazany: 

For me, and probably, you know, coming at it from a sustainability angle, it's that purpose and intent that's behind a company when you are building a startup, you know, it's something so incredibly hard and you'll need to be able to build sort of the right resilience in yourself. Have the ability to also adapt to whatever's happening either with your business or things that are affecting your business.

You know, like we're seeing at the moment with macro trends, there's a constant awareness and a need to iterate along the way, but then also recognize that feedback is so important. Be that from your customers or from your team. Or from your investors. You don't necessarily have to take every feedback, but you do have to listen. And I think that's such a crucial part of being a successful founder. 

SCS: 

And of course, you're coming on the show. To share a little bit about your success stories in investing more in women founded companies. We still know the data shows that women outperform and yet are under capitalized, and things currently are not as popular as it seems as back in the day, right? 

We're in the rise of Wokeism, Anti-DEI. We've seen some really interesting revelations in the last couple of months. 

Where we are from a gender perspective and diversity and all that. And as well, you know, from just what you're building a macro trends perspective. Are we licking our wounds right now? 

Give us some reflections of where we are today as a whole.

Rosalind Bazany: 

Let me start off just by touching on sort of the fact that supporting women founders, you know, isn't anything new for us. So Antler’s mission, if we really boil it down to one line, it's simply to find and back the best founders solving big problems. So in vc, we're in the business of spotting outliers and we know that outliers are gonna often come from underestimated backgrounds.

And with our global footprint, we see just how diverse entrepreneurial talent really is, and it is far beyond what the VC industry has traditionally reflected. Now, to your question around sort of the macro environment and the pushback that we are seeing around DEI, the criticism is often that diversity is just simply being pursued for diversity's sake, so regardless of outcomes or trade-offs, and it's just, you know, simply ticking a representation box.

We also have to acknowledge that linking diversity directly to financial returns is actually very difficult to quantify. But I think the most important thing, and that's often lost in this conversation is that DEI was never just. About representation, it's about perspective and culture. It's about building teams that better understand their markets, their customers, and their company risks.

And those are the things that really drive resilience and growth, especially in startups when they're just beginning. And I think the same logic really applies to how we find and support founders. If you wanna back the best in the world, you have to look beyond the usual VC networks. And we have to recognize that different founders may need different types of support to actually reach their full potential, and that that's gonna be something that's shaped by their own experiences, their barriers, and their motivations. 

Ultimately, it kind of comes down to what makes business sense, right? Whether you're a ESG or a DEI sort of skeptic or whether you are sort of more inclined that way, we're all asking the same question. You know, where's the value?

And I think if your approach is intentional, it's clear and it's outcomes driven. Then that's incredibly hard to argue with. 

SCS: 

You mentioned early in the conversation that it's about mixing a different pools of talent that would never have mixed before, and your numbers interestingly have always been a little bit higher than the average that we see in venture.

Tell us how this is structured for you to be top of the funnel, getting these higher numbers, because I think that's helpful. The pushback is, oh, there's not enough women for this work. We don't discriminate, Sarah, but there's just not enough women building. So tell us what you're seeing and how, I guess you've also built a little bit more intentionally to be able to construct the outcomes that you want.

Rosalind Bazany: 

So you are right. You know, around 27% of our active portfolio companies have at least one woman co-founder, and they've attracted close to, uh, a third of our invested capital. Now their average age is around 26 months. And all of this data, you know, I'm gonna caveat it a little footnote here. The nature of early stage VC means these numbers are gonna change probably quite dramatically, sort of week on, week, month on month.

But you know, for now. Across these companies, they've gone on to raise more than four times the capital that Antler invested at inception. And that kind of capital leverage is exactly what we aim for in early stage vc. I think it shows that those real market appetite, once the right teams get backed, and that's why our model at Antler coming in as early as we do is so important.

Now looking across the kind of broader portfolio. And if we look at funding rates, the rates for companies with women co-founders are comparable to all male teams. What we do see is that the average valuations and total external capital raise are still lower, but I do think this could be, you know, down to a mix of early stage and structural kind of market factors.

But yes, it's telling us that there's still a gap in who gets funded, but. It is not in who actually performs. So if we look at our top 10 performers in terms of MOIC three are led by women. Seven of our top 30 performers include women founders. And then if we look to our top a hundred, 21 have at least one woman co-founder.

And then if we strip out two outliers that heavily sort of skew the averages, valuations among women-led companies in the top 100 are actually slightly higher than they're all male teams. So the upside is there. And it's growing. 

SCS: 

So let's unpack that a little bit. Let's start with the valuations. So the valuations are higher, a little bit higher with gender diverse teams.

I'll be the devil's advocate here. Are there particular verticals where it's in general, like AI right now, commanding huge valuations, so gender's not really something that is the key dominant driver. What can you say with regard to where they're outperforming? Are there certain underlying factors here that will also support that? 

Rosalind Bazany: 

And this is something we need to kind of unpack more. We have the data, but we do need to go deeper in the analysis. We could look across regions and across sectors, but there's always sort of nuances to it. So for instance, when you look at our Southeast Asia portfolio, the reason why there's so many women co-founders within that portfolio is because it's one of our oldest locations.

And so then when you compare it to some of our newer locations like Brazil or. Um, Canada, it's a smaller sample set, and these are things where we will learn from other locations and think about if there are gaps, then what are we missing and what can we improve on? And that's the beauty of having this very cohesive global platform that we've created because it's always about learning and sharing and thinking about where we can improve.

So Singapore was launched in 2018, whereas Brazil was, you know, a few years ago. So it's the maturity of, of our portfolio, our branding and awareness in that location. And of course it takes time when you enter a new ecosystem, you have to kind of build your branding from scratch. Now there's a lot you can leverage from the rest of the platform, but you still need to be credible in your own ecosystem.

And so I think naturally. Our application rates increase in terms of absolute numbers over time, and then we start to get a more representative look at what our actual location will have in terms of who's applying, who's getting funded, et cetera. 

SCS: 

So of course the absolute numbers grow, but the proportion, I guess you are in Singapore. Where have you seen pockets of success with your women founders? Are they particularly building in certain industries? Were there certain strategies that you applied to be able to get to this level of maturity? 

Rosalind Bazany: 

The beauty of being sector agnostic means that we have found is building across all sectors. And if I look across, so since 2018, we've backed around 420 companies with at least one woman co-founder, and that's globally.

Now, obviously, as I mentioned, that'll look slightly different across different locations, but actually they're all very strong in terms of who they're funding, who they're backing.

These founders are building, you know, across AI, Infrastructure, FinTech, Climate Health, Consumer Tech, PropTech. When I look at the data in terms of specific sectors, nothing really stands out year on year, it seems to shift quite dramatically, and that just may simply be a reflection of what's happening across the industries, macro aspects, and really sort of where the hot topics might be sitting.

I wanna call out Neha Juneja, who's founder of IndiaP2P. She previously scaled India's largest clean cooking company, and then she turned her attention to microfinance. So she's helping rural women entrepreneurs access growth capital and allowing retail investors to actually back that credit. And her team have already processed 50,000 loan applications in just two years.

And I think for me, being on the sustainability side, it's such a perfect example of where innovation meets inclusion and is very commercial at the same time. And then you've got Emily Farrar at Genuine Taste in our Canada portfolio. So her team are producing cultivated animal fat from stem cells. So there's no harm to animals, there's no deforestation, and it's improving the taste and nutrition of alternative protein.

Their process also cuts emissions by up to 90%. And so it squarely sort of puts them as intersection of climate and food. And then I have to mention Maria, because I spoke to her this morning. She's over at the Us. She's a part of our New York residency at the moment. She's a three X founder. She's a Y Combinator alum, and now she's building Kivera with Antler.

This is a multilayered. AI platform for mental health diagnostics. Now in the US over 50% of mental health diagnoses are wrong. So that's leading to mistreatment, unnecessary costs for clinics and insurers, and often, you know, terrible consequences for patients and their families. And Maria knows this firsthand because her mother was misdiagnosed.

She's got support from Stanford, you know, major mental health associations. She's developed this platform that's already been used in clinics that really looks to bring more precision and accountability into the system. I think Kivera is such an incredible example really, of how personal experience from a founder can drive innovation, and that's why we need to keep, you know, backing founders like Maria.

Rose Nash at Biota detecting PFAS. So the forever-chemicals polluting our water systems, Han from Bio and Vietnam, reducing plastic use through bioplastics. Kristine, Ocean Oasis doing scaling, um, desalination with wave power, and then there's Daria at Airmo in Germany. She's launching small satellites into space to deliver industry leading methane analytics. So I mean, you can see just how spoiled I am working with these incredible women founders tackling real problems that need solving and doing it in incredibly innovative ways.

Back to that. That point that we were talking about, you know, what sets founders apart? You know, it's that, that grit, that purpose and their ability to lead teams. And that's the kind of thing that we look for at Antler. And that's regardless of gender. 

SCS: 

You mentioned something that I think really resonates where when women built, they built inclusively and they built with real purpose, right?

Solving some of the most urgent problems that we're faced with today. It's not incrementalism that's so common in, I don't know, enterprise SaaS where you see a plug on or an AI wrapper for something that doesn't necessarily move us all forward in the way that we should be moving forward. One of the challenges, however, on the flip side, is that women are often seen building with impact, in an impact investing lens, which sometimes impact investing as well is defined by the beholder, right?

But it sometimes seemed to be concessionary. Can you tell us a little bit about the commercial returns that you are seeing here? 

Rosalind Bazany: 

So I think it's plain and simple to be honest. Antler is not an impact VC. We don't have a mandate to invest in impact companies. I have to say, even though I'm head of ESG in Impact, I don't like the terms ESG are impact. I think unfortunately they've been misunderstood.

They've been sort of collapsed into different definitions that make no sense for sort of VC, but it doesn't mean they're sort of. Not important. It just means we have to actually think about what actually matters to founders on the ESG side of things. And then on the impact side of things, as I say, we don't have a mandate to invest in these companies.

We have a mandate and a fiduciary duty to deliver returns. With that sort of objective, we've still invested in over 40% of our portfolio that could be defined as an impact company, and I think that tells you a lot. We are still looking for that commercial traction. If you look at the gin definition of impact.

It's not about concessionary returns, it's about delivering an outcome that benefits the environmental society. That is intentional, but it's also about delivering returns. If you don't have a financially viable company, then how on earth are you gonna maximize the impact side? So it has to go hand in hand.

But our job as investors is to think about. Is this a problem worth solving? How are they gonna scale this company? And how are they gonna scale the impact that they're hoping to actually achieve? And is this something that could be long lasting or is this sort of a short term sort of response? And so I think when we assess impact companies, sure there are additional aspects that we look at, but in terms of the financial viability aspect, it's exactly the same as we look at it.

Any other sort of category that we're exploring, sustainability is something that should be aligned with structural growth trends. If you think about over here in Singapore and Southeast Asia, urbanization is without doubt a big theme. You know, this is something which is incredibly important for this region, and how are you gonna do that?

How are you gonna build cities or build buildings in a way that means they're gonna last or they're gonna be sort of more efficient, or we're gonna cut energy costs because they are enormous. If we are living in this AI world, we need energy in order to power it. And we will not have enough energy if we just rely on what's been used in the past.

So these alternative energy sources like renewables is a great way to do that. 

SCS: 

I wanna come back to the brass tacks here with the data. How about exit rates? You know, how about the liquidity that you're seeing from the portfolio perspective? Where are we today to be able to deliver returns for the LPs that you know your fiduciaries do, as you mentioned?

Rosalind Bazany: 

So because we're so early stage, we haven't seen sort of significant exits yet, what we look at is that funding rate. Our goal is to get as many companies as we possibly can to Series A when they've come through our residency program. So that's our kind of main objective. 

If we're thinking longer term, of course, when we're assessing a company, we have to think about an exit strategy, what might that look like? What is the founder's goal? What does the market look like? Are there examples of similar companies that have achieved that? But this is something that we'll look more into as our companies mature over the years. And certainly sort of when we look at some of the investments made from our follow-on investment vehicle that'll come fairly soon.

SCS: 

So I was gonna point to that actually. In terms of portfolio strategy and construction, first of all, you're super global. But there are different gps that are leading locally, right? So we have local partnerships to drive the work there, which is super important. How then are you thinking also with each fund, in terms of like the holding period to then exit and create the liquidity side?

Rosalind Bazany: 

It's honestly case by case at the moment. So Southeast Asia Fund is on its third one that we are just, uh, launching at the moment, and that's probably sort of the more frequent vintages that we've seen. But a lot of other regions are going on to fund two like we're seeing in the US or or central Europe.

And then elevate our follow on investment vehicle is also now, fundraising for a second fund as well. But in terms of our holding period, you know, it's very typical to any other VC, we built that follow-on investment vehicle because we wanted to continue to invest in some of our really strong performing companies.

We don't lead the round, but we've got to know these companies of, you know, two plus years. And so it's really important that we can continue that relationship. I think when a liquidity event happens, then we will assess what to do, whether we need to do distribution, whether we reinvest into the fund. I think that recycling sort of aspect is really important if you do have an event early on, but to really think about what makes sense for the portfolio and when to sell down.

We like to hold as long as possible until we really need to provide sort of distribution or realize our returns, but none of our funds have kind of reached that term as yet. 

SCS: 

Yeah, so still early days, but of course for a fund that's building in its early days, you were quick to say yes to taking the pledge of Beyond The Billion, to invest more in women and to double down in a strategy that clearly, you know, from all the stories you've shared, has been working for you.

Yet it is a tighter capital environment and other funds, you know, across the world are feeling the pinch as well. I think that's a real bifurcation with the mega funds, right, that are becoming more than VC funds. I think you saw General Catalyst bought a hospital and now are operating in, so, you know, adapting as we go.

How are you adapting in today's approach? What's your advice to a fund that may not have, frankly, a head of ESG and impact ? 

Rosalind Bazany: 

When the market's a leader, I think that for any investor, clarity matters more than ever. You need real conviction in the team and how they think, how they communicate, and how they're gonna execute.

But I think, you know, I wanna touch on sort of more of the diversity aspect, because when pressure sort of amplifies, so does bias. You know, when stakes are high, people tend to default to what's familiar, and I think that's why. We at antler double down on intentionality and long-term thinking. We have to remind ourselves that VC is about backing outliers.

And in moments like this, if you lose focus on that, then you risk overlooking the very people that are wired to build differently. And that's gonna be sort of linked to returns. 

SCS: 

I guess more practically, are there templates that you use that you train your team on? How do you think about this? I think this is absolutely real, right?

And with vc, just bringing people into the decision making room that are different even as an example, matters. How are you being more intentional in making sure that. Even as you adapt, you're not compromising on certain values that then affects the returns. 

Rosalind Bazany: 

When we joined the the pledge, which is back in October, 2023, there was an expectation that this would sort of need to change sort of who we're investing in or how we invest, but I don't think it actually done that, but it's changed how we reflect and act, and I'd say this is a kind of constant thing. 

The pledge and other initiatives that we've worked on have added sort of layers of accountability. We report on progress annually, which means that we have to interrogate our data more. We have to refine our sourcing strategies and really build more intentional support systems around our founders.

I think it's really important for VCs to keep widening funnel so we don't miss out on really exceptional people. We don't have hard quotas. I don't think it's anything that sort of really delivered the outcomes that we want for our founders or for the ecosystem. So we have to focus more on insight.

And where we see sort of gaps or declining trends, then we have to dig into why and then respond. And this is something we've always done with new initiatives. You know, deeper analysis or developing partnerships like we have with beyond the billion to, to close those gaps. I think one thing that really helps us is the amount of time that we actually spend with founders before we invest.

So when I talked about their residency program, this could be up to 12 weeks, and this really helps us understand the people. Behind the pitch and then so naturally reduces this bias that we often see when decisions are made too quickly and in times of sort of pressure, we get about 23% of our global applications from women.

And that percentage is kind of stayed the same, but the absolute number now takes us to having supported nearly 3000 women across our founder residencies and scale like that really matters. I would say on the flip side though, so I've kind of talked about all the positive stuff that's going on. You know, we've spent years building broader networks, launching initiatives, but application rates, acceptance rates and funding ratios haven't moved significantly.

So now what we are doing is asking the harder questions. So is it the issue in the funnel, in our funnel, or is it how the ecosystem itself is designed? And we have to think about what more is needed both upstream and downstream. And that'll mean, you know, rethinking our own assumptions around sourcing.

It also means looking at how we support women through the fundraising journey. And that could be anything from peer learning to boundary setting, or to confidence in high stakes conversations. And I think these are the kind of things that we need to dig deeper within the VC industry and share our learnings.

And I have to call out Brooke Andrews. She's not a portfolio founder at Antler, but the work she's doing with Safe Raise is about helping women founders raise capital on their terms. And I think this is the kind of thing that we wanna see from founders. And it's certainly something that the ecosystem needs more of.

And hopefully we can share more down the line of the. The work we're hoping to do with Brooke. 

SCS: 

For someone who's new to this, you're the head of ESG impact. How do you implement that each step of the way? So you start with the pipeline, there's no hard quotas, but is there an intentional, look, folks, we wanna get the best in the best, best in class in the world for this to ensure that you reach the 50 50.

Like how do you actually think about this and how do you think we should be thinking about this moving forward? 

Rosalind Bazany: 

So hard quotas are different from aiming for targets. So what we recognize is when I talked about sort of that data analysis is how important getting that data at different points in a founder's journey with Antler are.

So in 2023, we actually extended the demographic questions that we asked our founders, and this wasn't because we are nosy. It was genuinely linked to a business strategy. This was going to help us understand. Who is joining Antler, the type of support they might need and to learn from this incredible community of thousands of founders.

So yes, there are scouting initiatives where we can broaden and access new networks. There's, you know, promotional activity and awareness and, um, building our founder community through our own founders that already are part of our community. I have to say that word of mouth is probably the most successful sourcing strategy that Antler has.

Purely just allowing founders to talk about their experiences and encouraging people to come join. And then obviously, sort of as we go through the application process. And bring them into the residency. Within that, again, we're collecting data so we can start to sort of see where the gaps might occur or the reasons why women founders might drop off and things like that.

And so it's a constant exploration and it's something that. You know, I have oversight on, and so far I should say that we've been very successful in maintaining our ratios. And obviously the absolute numbers speak for themselves, but there's always more that we can do. But we have to link it back to that overall objective of what Antler is all about, and that's finding the best founders, and we won't compromise on that.

SCS: 

What's interesting to me about Antler’s model is that you have multiple locations, right? And therefore you work with different local partners. A lot of your GPs actually, that we've met are very diverse and very happy to see that. 

Whether you've seen any trends like we've seen in the data where women are twice more likely to invest in other women, any insights there with who the allocator is?

Rosalind Bazany: 

In terms of who we bring in, it takes quite a long time with the process. Antler is  a very different model, and it's not right for everybody. When we're expanding into new markets, you know, we have to think about first, whether it's an ecosystem we want to enter, whether we are needed, and then we have to think about who's gonna run it.

And it's really incredible because I think this plays to sort of the culture of Antler. You have to be a team player, but then you're also running your own business in your own ecosystem where you have all the knowledge and the network. So it's really about finding the right balance, making sure that there's an understanding of how we work together.

The benefits of being part of a global platform, but in terms of backgrounds or ethnicity, race, gender, it's all something we track. You know, whatever we ask our founders, we ask our workforce as well and be that from pun all the way down to our analysts. And I think it's really important because what we have to build is a group of partners that reflect.

The global entrepreneurial landscape, and so it's an important aspect of what we must consider, but it wouldn't be the only thing that we consider similar to the founder side of things. We have to find the best that is appropriate for antler in the work that we do from a numbers perspective. Any trends there?

The best thing would be because we report all of this in our annual ESG and impact report, and there's a ton of data around demographics and our approach to culture. Both across our internal workforce and then our founder community as well. So, uh, maybe just a, a way to plug 

SCS: 

Yeah. And wonderful. And that's something that we will be directing in the show notes and also including in part of our report with Beyond The Billion.

And super excited for that. So we've talked a lot about strategy, your personal journey. What Antler is up to. Looking ahead now, where is Antler heading? What can we look forward to? Anything in particular from an ESG and impact standpoint? 

Rosalind Bazany: 

Sustainability is this world where it's just constantly evolving. I'd say that things that I'm looking at a little more closely are around dual use tech. Obviously, sort of given the nature of the world at the moment. There's a lot of discussion around defense tech. And we need to think about a framework that would work within due diligence. AI is obviously the topic on everyone's lips at the moment.

For me, within sustainability, I'm just as excited as everyone else is around ai. But what I wanna just make sure is drawing the attention of this, you know, connection between AI and sustainability because it's incredibly powerful in terms of solving a lot of these challenges that we face and doing it faster and cheaper.

And I highlighted just many of the examples I used, leveraging AI. I think that for Antler, we've just launched in San Francisco, so there'll be a concentration on building that out. We've also just launched in Nigeria and we are just launching our second Africa fund and I'd say that just like our founders, we're always fundraising.

We're always looking for more exceptional people to come and join Antler. I hope that we can support them in any way we can, to help them scale and succeed. 

SCS: 

Yeah, and of course we have a big audience actually of LPs there tuning in. What do LPs get with Antler that they don't get with any other fund or franchise?

Rosalind Bazany: 

Great question, and I would say that the key word is access. We talked about the different locations we're in. We talked about the early stage nature of what we do. We're accessing trends before people even see them. We're working with founders that think and build in different ways. We recognize how we need to explore different networks and different backgrounds, different individuals who will build incredible companies that are long lasting and deliver returns at the same time. 

So I think for LPs, what's been interesting is they're not just investing in funds, they're getting access to co-investment deals. They're getting access to analytics, they're getting access to trends that are emerging within the tech space, and there.

Part of a community that has grown exceptionally over the years and is where the future of innovation is all about. 

SCS: 

Love it. Well, what a pitch to end on Ros. Was there anything else that you wanted to cover before we jump to the quick fire questions here? 

Rosalind Bazany: 

There was something, because when we talk about gender lens, you know, I think it's something that actually undersells it and I think it's an important point to make that.

When we talk about sort of lenses, people often treat them like filters and not focus. So a gender lens, you know, as well as I do, it's often misunderstood. It is seen as this ethical kind of overlay or this diversity checkbox, but a true strategic lens helps you see what others miss. So market gaps, overlook talent, structural inefficiencies, and I don't think it's about narrowing your focus to women only.

It's about really widening your understanding of what drives value and long-term performance. If the data is showing that women-led companies actually perform, and it does, as we've just talked about earlier. Then ignoring that isn't just a missed opportunity for equity, it's a missed opportunity for returns, and that's something that all investors and all LPs should be really caring about.

SCS: 

Yeah, love that. And it's absolutely something we talk about, right? You know, how can you grow when you're missing 50% of the population? And not only from an impact perspective, but just from an opportunity perspective. Look at women's health today. You know, it's still today, underserved women were ignored for the longest time.

It's also impacting our lives, right? I always use this example of the car seats they were testing not on women bodies and children bodies, and therefore the accident rates back in the day were very high. And if you think about that today, transpose that into the world of AI, I'm concerned today it's what, 31% of the AI workforce only are made of women. 

So I'm hopeful, actually, you're in San Francisco, there is a new movement of boulders, right? They're just hacking together. And one that I'm looking at is AGI house. That's by a female co-founder as well. So there's definitely some connectivity there to make sure that there's women building at the ground level, even as we experienced this huge shift, right? We had mobile, this is next, AI is everything. 

Rosalind Bazany: 

It goes back to my point, it's about perspectives. And it's about culture. It's not about ticking a box. It's interesting you bring up the kind of AI bias piece because this is exactly the type of thing that I do in my day-to-day. So figuring out what sustainability factors can be, commercial levers and what actually matters for each individual startup and their priorities are gonna be very different depending on their model, their stage, you know, their customer base, et cetera. 

But it's about bringing attention to things that are often overlooked. And it just means if you have an awareness and address it earlier on, it's gonna be a much easier journey down the line. Be that sort of, you know, going to, to get your customers or going to investors and due diligence processes.

And that's what my job's all about. Just highlighting the different sustainability factors that really will drive value for companies. 

SCS: 

Our levers for growth. I mean, one of our LPs actually in our network continues to say this diversity has always been a pillar of growth for us. How can we not have it?

And I think that's really what you've said throughout this conversation in which it is not only a lens, but an aperture to continue to grow. You know, often folks come back to me saying the pushback is. Oh, it's gonna narrow down the options. In fact, the idea is that it widens the options. It widens the pool because it forces you to go where the women are that you would have never, you know, explored in the past because you've been reliant on different sources.

So I'm excited to see leaders like you, Ros, pointing us in the right direction and continuing to do so. We've covered a lot of ground here. 

We get to the fun part. I usually have a deck of cards, but we're doing it virtually. So I'm gonna read this to you. First question is, who would play you. In the movie version of your life, Ros? 

Rosalind Bazany: 

Charlize Theron or Julia Roberts.

SCS: 

I see it. I see it. I like it. I like it. What is something people don't know about you? That they'd have to see you doing it to believe it? 

Rosalind Bazany: 

There's a lot of things that people assume I can do, so maybe I'll flip it. I was told at age 13, please stop coming to art class while everyone else in my class did art GCSE, I wasn't allowed to. That's how bad I am. 

SCS: 

Okay. Okay. We will not be asking for your artwork anytime soon. What is the most interesting thing you've read or learned recently? 

Rosalind Bazany: 

So, Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie, and this was a book given to me by a founder from our India portfolio, um, the founder and CEO of StepChange who's built an ESG platform that's supporting banks out there.

But it's a fantastic book because it essentially sort of debunks a lot of myths around data linking with sustainability topics. So it's a fascinating read. I recommend it to everyone. 

SCS: 

Talking about founders, you know, it sounds like you're in the rough with a ton of amazing founders, amazing brains coming together to think about some heart problems that we're faced with.

What is one thing one founder has said to you that still leaves a mark on you today? 

Rosalind Bazany: 

I had this wonderfully blunt founder who asked me what I did, and I said I lead sustainability. And she said, isn't that all bullshit? And, that was a fantastic response. Then I talked to her about what it is and we talked about data governance and cybersecurity.

And at the end of it, she said, I get it now. Thank you. And that was something where I recognize that, it is so important to have that conversation and to talk at it in a way that's relevant for founders and use their language. 

SCS: 

Yeah. And final parting words here, words of advice for two kinds of profiles, either a founder or a funder.

Rosalind Bazany: 

I'd say piece of advice for both. Keep going. 

SCS: 

Keep going. Yes. It is not the end of the world. Keep going. We're so excited to have you. What a conversation. Ross, where can we find you? Where can we find more about Antler and anything that you're up to? 

Rosalind Bazany: 

You can either visit our website, so Antler.co. If you want to look more deeply at the sustainability side of things, just forward slash sustainability at the end of our website, and, uh, you can always follow us on LinkedIn. We're constantly posting content, insights and incredible blogs from our founders and from our partners all over the world. If you wanna reach me, please just reach out on LinkedIn and I'd be happy to have a conversation.

SCS: 

All right, Ros. Well,, thank you so much for your time, and thank you for all you do in leading forward.