If you're building in Australia or New Zealand and weighing Startmate against Antler, the honest answer is that they are not competing for the same founder. Startmate pays A$120,000 for a cohort selected after a formal process; Antler writes a pre-seed cheque into teams it often helps form from scratch, sometimes before there is a product. Four other programmes in our catalogue are worth knowing about too, because none of them close on the same calendar as these two and some pay more.
Startmate: the terms on the table
Startmate invests A$120,000. Applications close November 1, 2026, 11:59pm AEDT. Program dates run Feb 1 to May 7, 2027. That is roughly three months between the deadline and cohort start, tight if you are coming from outside Australia and need a visa sorted.
Antler: the terms on the table
Antler offers a pre-seed investment. No fixed deadline is stated on the program site, unlike Startmate's hard November 1 cutoff. Antler runs cohorts continuously across multiple cities, so applying means picking a specific location's intake rather than hitting one global date.
Equity, and what neither publishes
Neither Startmate's page nor Antler's states an equity percentage in the figures we verified, which is unusual next to the rest of the catalogue. Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator is explicit: $150K on a 6% Post-Money SAFE, with W'27 and S'27 both open now. gener8tor is just as direct: $100,000 for 7.5% equity, rolling, TBD on dates. Alchemist Accelerator sits lower, a $25,000 stipend for roughly 5% equity, negotiable, though its own site does not list current application dates. If equity matters more to you than cheque size, those three numbers give you something to negotiate against when Startmate and Antler don't publish theirs.
Cohort format: selected team vs built team
- Startmate runs a single Australian cohort per cycle, Feb 1 to May 7, 2027 this round, built around teams that already have a product or a strong prototype.
- Antler runs multiple cohorts across many cities and is structured so solo founders can join without a cofounder and get matched inside the first weeks.
- Conector Startup Accelerator takes 4 to 7% equity for program and services, closer to Antler's hands-on model than Startmate's cheque-and-cohort structure.
- Katapult backs sustainability-focused teams with far larger cheques, €150,000 to €500,000, though it publishes no confirmed dates on its own site.
Can you apply from outside Australia or New Zealand?
Nothing in the figures we verified for Startmate or Antler states a residency requirement, and that matters because the practical answer is usually yes, with conditions. Antler explicitly runs cohorts in multiple countries, so an NZ founder applying into an Australian intake, or an Australian founder applying into a different Antler city, is normal rather than an exception. Startmate's single Australian cohort (Feb 1 to May 7, 2027) makes relocating for five months the real question, not eligibility. Neither programme's page specifies a required incorporation entity in the material we checked, which means you ask the programme directly before you apply rather than assume anything, because the US-based names in this catalogue, like HF0, PepsiCo Greenhouse Accelerator and Techstars structure very differently and you should not guess which rules carry over.
Other options if neither fits the calendar
- HF0 Residency: amount not published by the organiser, a residency place rather than a stated cheque, applications at hf0.com/apply, current batch demo day on December 1.
- PepsiCo Greenhouse Accelerator: $20,000 equity-free grant, plus up to $100,000 for winners, dates not currently confirmed.
- Techstars: $120,000, no application dates currently stated on the program site.
- GSF Accelerator: seed investment plus mentorship, no confirmed dates.
- Outlier Ventures Base Camp: token or equity investment plus acceleration, no fixed deadline stated.
My actual recommendation: if you already have a product and a cofounder, apply to Startmate before November 1, 2026 and plan your calendar around the May 7, 2027 close, because A$120,000 for a defined five month sprint with no equity ambiguity left to negotiate is a clean deal to evaluate. If you are solo, pre-product, or want help finding a cofounder, Antler is the better fit precisely because it has no fixed deadline and built its format around that gap. Don't apply to both and decide later. Pick the one that matches what you have right now, not what you expect to have by the deadline.