Jean Gatt, a Maltese entrepreneur, has announced that his startup Meerchat has secured pre-seed investment from venture capital firm Antler.

Originally set up in Norway, Antler also has branches in Madrid and Lisbon, the latter being where Mr Gatt was selected as a Founder in Residence for its pre-accelerator programme back in November 2022, with the residency starting in January of this year.

In Lisbon, he met with serial entrepreneur Guillaume De Sá, with whom he developed “in stealth” the pair’s new startup.

According to Mr Gatt, now Chief Technology Officer of the new company, Meerchat, stylised “meerchat”, “redefines the support group experience online for your most important goals, from studying, to losing weight, to quitting smoking, and more.”

Back in early March, the startup logged 1,000 registrations in 28 days. At the time, Mr De Sá took to LinkedIn to recount the journey up to that point, describing the “bromance” with Mr Gatt that led to their decision to work together, to the problems that plagued their development in the beginning stages.

He described Mr Gatt as having “the grit, the hustle, and the will to make something big happen”, and as “among the most brilliant hackers and problem solvers I met”.

With the pre-seed investment secured from Antler, Meerchat seems to be on a path of growth: “Becoming part of the Antler Portfolio is a significant milestone for us, but we know the road ahead will be filled with challenges, late nights, and tough decisions.

“However, we're ready to tackle them head-on, armed with the experience we've gained along the way.”