ANTAI Venture Builder

Every day we accept the challenge of launching successful businesses together with the best teams of professionals.

Monday 6 June 2016, by Alexander Otterström, AliciaDadlani, Ethan Laud, Raluca Stanca

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A. The main facts about the activities of the company.

According to their webpage, ANTAI is an “international online and mobile venture builder”, currently present across three continents: North America, South America, and Europe. Essentially what ANTAI, (like other venture builders) aims to do is used shared expertise and resources found within its company to help transform ideas and concepts into fully-functioning startups. First, the company goes through a screening process in search of potential businesses that have a high likelihood of success, and then helps these businesses to expand. In a cooperative process, ANTAI partners with the budding entrepreneurial initiative, and then goes through these steps: “business development, business intelligence, financial and legal advice, while also providing the means and the search for and hiring of necessary personnel”.

Other important facts as mentioned on the webpage of the company are that they have over 150 employees, are present in over 9 countries, have undertaken 9 digital businesses since 2012, and estimate an average of a 3-month period for launching start-ups.

Specifically, the company focuses on digital business in Southern Europe and Latin America. They pride themselves on helping to launch companies that are agile and flexible across different markets and systems. Furthermore, they place importance on the impact on society created by their ventures. Their digital business scope is divided into four sectors: E-commerce, Apps, Social Discovery, and Social Networks.

B. The Ethical challenges this company is addressing.

Venture capitalists like ANTAI help address the challenge faced by many small startups. Venture capitalists in their very nature try to give small startups a more level playing field in which to compete against large monopoly, incumbent firms who hold an unfair disadvantage given their market power. Start-up companies often have trouble breaking into their industry in order to make the impact they want to. Due to high barriers to entry involving high startup and sunk costs, the transition from a ‘seed’ company to a public company is very difficult without access to capital. As startups pose more of a risk than large incumbent firms, bank loans are often more expensive for them. Therefore an unequal distribution of wealth occurs as bigger monopoly firms are able to borrow cheap capital in order to expand and so gain market power. Wealthy firms get wealthier, further increasing the barriers to entry. This is detrimental to society since monopoly power inevitably leads to higher prices and may reduce innovation and creativity in the market. Venture capitalists address this problem by providing funding and expertise to smaller companies, reducing the barriers to entry and helping them break into the industry They select companies that focus on serving society, then help them to grow into other markets. They provide business intelligence, financial and legal advice along the journey as well as capital. Startups feed economic growth and provide more opportunities for labour, therefore it is in society’s interest that they are aided in their growth.

We have learnt that if we want the system to change, we have to work from within It, by keeping one foot in the ‘old’ and one in the new system. We think Antai understands this since their aims combine a focus on profit through growing successful business and a desire to grow business that will positively impact society. We believe that ultimately, what this company aims to achieve is to change the way people consume and relate to each other.

C. What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why you trust it?

We believe Antai is an ethical venture builder because it focuses on developing new digital businesses in Southern Europe and Latin America, which have an impact on society and change the way that people consume and relate to each other. This is reinforced by the company values such as Humanity, Entrepreneurship and Leadership.

The companies that Antai supports showcase its ethical direction. One of the acknowledged businesses that Antai has been a part of is Wallapop, which is a virtual flea market based on a smartphone app and website. The service is free of charge for all its users and promotes buying and selling used goods locally to recycle and upcycle items that may be of use for others. Wallapop strictly prohibits the sale of services and environmentally unfriendly and illegal items. Another startup that Antai has been working closely with is Deliberry. Deliberry is an online groceries app that guarantees a high quality selection of products through experienced mama shoppers. What makes Deliberry ethical, innovative and socially-uplifting is that it hires women that charities recommend and who need employment but are at risk of social exclusion.

Finally, we chose Antai because we believe its core operations are innovative and overall helpful for society.

D.The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how you think this company may improve.

The vision of venture-building companies is often to exhibit characteristics of a monopoly. Given that Antai is a market leader in its industry, a monopoly strategy would involve overstepping some ethical values when choosing new ventures. Therefore, the biggest challenge for Antai is to maintain ethical values alongside their growth.

It must be immediately noticeable, that unlike other companies, ANTAI does not explicitly emphasize ethics or corporate social responsibility. However, their business selection processes have not been made public. We recommend that they state their ethical perspective more clearly and ambitiously incorporate their core values in everyday business. They could also become more transparent in their criteria for choosing the new ventures they partner with. We think that by following these practice, Antai would serve as a true example for business practices in the venture building industry.

Bibliography

http://www.antaivb.com/
https://www.deliberry.com/
http://es.wallapop.com/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/11977114/How-one-company-is-helping-Spains-depressed-labour-market-and-middle-aged-women.html
http://venturebeat.com/2015/01/18/how-venture-builders-are-changing-the-startup-model/

Location: Barcelona (Spain)

Sector: Financial and insurance activities, Administrative and support service activities, Other service activities

Official website: http://www.antaivb.com/

Key figures:

Financials are not available as it is not a public listed company.

Number of employees: More than 150 at Antai and undertaken ventures

Countries of operation:
Europe: Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, UK
North America: USA, Mexico
South America: Colombia, Chille

Nbr. visits: 688