Antares Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Antares Ventures is a Singapore-based specialist deep-tech venture capital firm. Its tagline is "Deep Tech. For Asia. Built to Matter." The firm invests globally in science- and engineering-led companies and then helps them commercialise and deploy across Asia. The core belief is that deep tech becomes economically decisive when it removes a bottleneck in infrastructure that customers are already building and operating. The firm formalised this view in its Beyond Carbon & Silicon report, which argues that AI, electrification and advanced manufacturing are driving a reinvestment cycle across grids, data centres and industrial capacity.
The firm frames its work around four problems: physical limits on energy, compute and infrastructure scale; systemic complexity where energy, compute, cities and industry are coupled; the gap between demonstration and large-scale deployment; and resilience under stress, such as hotter cities and rising cooling load. Asia is positioned as the place where system limits show up earliest, so technologies proven there are tested under future global conditions.
Investment Areas
Antares organises its strategy into four themes:
- Energy Systems: next-generation energy production, grid-scale storage and balancing, power electronics and grid control, low-carbon fuels and energy carriers.
- Compute and Digital Infrastructure: advanced materials and compute architectures, power delivery, cooling and advanced packaging, photonics and interconnects, compute embedded in real assets.
- Industrial Systems: advanced manufacturing, electrification and energy substitution, new materials and process engineering, industrial sensing and automation.
- Infrastructure and Natural Systems: advanced mobility and logistics, bio-industrial and resource processing, climate-resilient infrastructure, water, waste and resource recovery, plus food technology and farming.
Stage Focus
The firm targets early-growth deep-tech companies from Seed to Series B. Its portfolio page labels companies as either Fund I or Pre-Fund, meaning investments made before the fund formally launched.
Check Size
The firm does not publish a check size. Fund I has invested about US$27 million across nine companies, which implies an average of roughly US$3 million per company including follow-ons. Treat check size as an inference, not a stated range.
Lead Tendency
The site says the firm leads or co-leads, takes board roles and works closely with founders. It also pairs capital with execution support and offers LP co-investment opportunities. In the 2025 Ionate Series A (US$17M), press coverage describes Antares as the second-largest investor, so it does not always lead.
Fund Status and Recent Activity
On 14 October 2026 Antares announced more than US$50 million in commitments to Antares Ventures I at a second close, with a target final size of US$100 million. Investors include family offices and corporate and strategic investors from Southeast Asia, Japan and Korea. The firm is selectively deploying while it continues fundraising. Recent investments include Aslan Renewables (seed, November 2025), enaDyne (seed, September 2025) and Ionate (Series A, 2025). Newer pre-fund-labelled additions appear on the portfolio page, including Protonas, TracePlus and Safe Air Technologies.
Portfolio Highlights
Fund I companies named by the firm are VFlowTech (Singapore, long-duration energy storage), Ionate (UK, hybrid intelligent transformers), enaDyne (Germany, non-thermal plasma reactors), The ePlane Company (India, electric aircraft), Ayrton Energy (Canada, LOHC hydrogen storage and transport), FeX Energy (Canada, iron-based thermochemical heat storage), Ackcio (Singapore, infrastructure monitoring), Open Ocean Robotics (Canada, autonomous ocean vessels) and Hydroleap (Singapore, electrochemical water treatment). The pre-fund track record includes Aquaconnect, Fasal, TurtleTree, Umami Bioworks, Better Dairy and Albedo, and the firm reports seven corporate exits.
Team
- Michael Gryseels, Founder and Managing Partner
- Rui (Louis) Murayama, Partner
- Milena Nikolova, Partner
- Nhung Hoang, Vice President of Investment
- Tyler Dinh, Investment Associate
- Venture partners: Benjamin Emmanuel Lee, Mahir Sahin, Deepak Roy Moorthy, Maria Li, Michael Hebert
- Advisory board chaired by Gianfranco Casati; Ad Ketelaars chairs the Investment Committee
The firm describes a 20-person investment and operating team across Asia, with offices in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta.
Decision Process
There is a formal Investment Committee, chaired by senior advisor Ad Ketelaars, so decisions are made by committee rather than a solo GP. Before investing the firm evaluates technical performance, deployment economics, integration risk and the pathway to commercial adoption. It has a dedicated research function that builds views on technology areas before it looks at individual companies.
Founder Preferences
Antares backs science- and engineering-led founders with breakthrough technology and clear industrial demand. Portfolio testimonials stress its value as a gateway to Asia: introductions across Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Australia, industrial and corporate partnerships, pilots and localisation. Founders who do not want or need Asian market entry are a weaker fit.
Geographic Focus
Invests globally, with portfolio companies in Singapore, India, Canada, the US, UK, France, Germany, Hong Kong and Thailand. The commercial focus is Asia, and the firm is licensed and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore as a venture capital fund manager.