Former Schroders exec joins venture capitalist

Industry veteran Graeme Mather has joined Antler, the early-stage venture capital investor, as a global partner.

In his new role, he will help the venture capitalist deepen ties with large asset managers in the Asia Pacific and look at boosting super fund investment.

Before taking on this position, Mather was head of business strategy, product and distribution at Schroders Australia.

He joined Schroders in 2016 following an 18 year career with Mercer.

The long serving investment and retirement expert was regarded as one of Mercer's key executives dealing with the Australian superannuation market having been with the firm both in Australia and the United Kingdom.

He's also the co-founder of Datafabric - a  startup that provides data and software services to asset managers.

Commenting on his appointment Mather stated: "Antler is a unique global asset management firm with an amazing technology platform that allows the firm to find phenomenal founders building businesses that solve some of the world's biggest problems."

"I'm excited to be able to combine two of my passions in the role - innovation and investing to contribute to the firm's growth."

Antler global partner Ant Millet said asset managers are generally increasing their allocations to alternatives and innovation, looking to capture the leading growth trends that will contribute to the largest and most impactful companies over the next decade such as quantum, blockchain, AI, machine learning, robotics and cloud.

"Post-market peak in 2021 the trend has been to allocate to the earlier stages of innovation and venture, globally," he said.

"With our 'day zero' model at Antler providing scalable solutions to institutional asset owners, we're excited to have Graeme join us and contribute to building our strategic partnerships."

Over the past 24 months, the investor has seen significant commitment from more than 30 large institutional asset owners, including 12 sovereign wealth funds and government investors.

Earlier this year, Antler announced the successful closure of the AU$425 million Global Elevate Fund and has continued to see strong interest and commitments to its early-stage strategies globally.

The Antler board is co-chaired by Sheila Patel, former chair of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and Tore Myrholt, former EMEA chair of McKinsey.

The advisory board includes: Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers,  former co-manager of the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust at Baillie Gifford James Anderson,  Schroders' chief executive Peter Harrison, and Ken Hitchner, former chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs APAC.

Nancy Zimmerman, co-founder and managing partner of Bracebridge Capital also sits on the board along with David Fischer, former chief revenue officer at Facebook; and Todd Ruppert the former chief executive of T. Rowe Price International.