Bengaluru, October 16, 2026: Antler India has launched Obsessed Outliers, a video campaign profiling a new generation of Indian founders building businesses around complex, high-conviction ideas across deeptech, defence, aerospace, biology, longevity, gene editing, mining, commerce and finance.
The campaign will showcase founders tackling problems that require new technologies, scientific breakthroughs and business models, with the ambition to build globally relevant companies from India. It will also offer a closer look at Antler’s founder-first investment approach and how the firm evaluates businesses at the pre-seed stage, often before revenue, retention data or a fully developed product exists.
The series opens with BazaarNow, a quick-commerce venture focused on groceries and essentials in smaller Indian towns. While the category is established in larger cities, replicating the same model in smaller markets requires a different approach to customer preferences, pricing, population density, local brands and supply chains. BazaarNow is building a digital shopping model tailored to these market conditions.
The campaign also introduces Antler’s AGOATX framework, which it uses to evaluate founders at the earliest stages of company building. The framework assesses six attributes: Audacity, Grit, Obsession, Agency, Thinking Clarity and X Factor. With limited operating data available at pre-seed, Antler places significant weight on a founder’s ability to identify a meaningful problem, develop conviction around a solution and execute against it.
“At the pre-seed stage, the market, product and business model can all change. What matters is the founder’s ability to identify a problem worth solving, think clearly about the opportunity and keep building through uncertainty. That applies as much to a consumer brand as it does to a deeptech company. With Obsessed Outliers, we want to tell the stories of founders who have a strong point of view on what they are building and the conviction to see it through. These are the qualities we look for when we invest, often before the conventional metrics are in place,” said Nitin Sharma, Partner, Antler India.
The campaign comes as Antler India continues to evolve its investment model. Initially centred on its residency program, the firm now also invests directly in founders and companies. More than 50% of its investments are now made directly, reflecting a shift towards backing founders beyond the residency route.
The firm’s investment approach is built around founder conviction rather than prevailing market trends. Its portfolio spans companies pursuing opportunities across sectors, including deeptech ventures working in aviation, space, biology, minerals and autonomous systems. More than 10% of Antler India’s portfolio is in deeptech, with companies including Aspera, InSpeCity, Armory, Mandrake and Uncharted AI.
Over the next five weeks, Obsessed Outliers will feature founder stories alongside partner-led social content, community engagements, founder roadshows and ecosystem activations across Bengaluru. BazaarNow leads the series, with more founders from Antler India’s portfolio to follow.
Watch the ‘Obsessed Outliers’ series:
[Antler X BazaarNow – LIVE LINK]
About Antler India
Antler is a global early-stage venture capital firm that backs the world’s most driven founders from day zero to greatness. Antler India operates through its maiden $75 million India fund, managed by founding partners Rajiv Srivatsa and Nitin Sharma. The firm has invested in over 115 startups in India across AI, consumer technology, fintech, deeptech, health, and climate sectors, selected from a platform of over 25,000 founders. Antler operates across 30 cities globally, including Bengaluru, Singapore, London, Austin, and Tokyo, and has backed over 1,300 startups worldwide with an ambition to support more than 6,000 by 2030.
