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Ihar Mahaniok, an immigrant engineering leader with over 20 years of experience building code and machine learning models for startups and conglomerates, founded Geek Ventures after seeing the difficulties immigrant entrepreneurs faced when trying to raise capital and make connections within the U.S. venture-capital ecosystem. The Fund curates immigrant-focused networking events to help these founders build the right venture capital connections, grow their professional networks, and break into the U.S. market. Combined with the right injection of capital, these opportunities help immigrant founders fast track business growth.

"More than half of America's startups valued at $1 billion or more were founded by immigrants, and although talent may be distributed evenly, opportunity is not. Immigrant entrepreneurs looking to enter a new market like the U.S. struggle to develop the right connections to grow, especially amid a market slowdown," said Ihar Mahaniok, managing partner of Geek Ventures. "Geek Ventures was built to bridge the gap between immigrants and U.S. investors, especially as VCs and LPs have been less inclined to take risks this year. We're finding more opportunities than ever before to support a wide array of innovations created by exceptional founders globally."

Prior to Geek Ventures, Mahaniok invested in notable unicorns as an angel investor including Instacart, PandaDoc, People.ai, Chainalysis, Airbyte, and Jeeves at pre-seed and seed stage, and hundreds of other successful companies. Through Geek Ventures, Mahaniok has continued to deploy capital in immigrant-founded technology companies including NewHomesMate, ShapesXR, FoodReady, Spice AI and more, to help them grow in the U.S.

"I first met Ihar in the early stages of PandaDoc and his futuristic outlook, innovative track record, and technology-first approach has been instrumental in the growth of my business. His involvement in the Eastern European startup scene has already made an impact and his fund allows him to continue shaping the future of immigrant-founded companies," said Mikita Mikado, CEO and co-founder of PandaDoc. "The fund represents more than Ihar's desire to support immigrant founders with capital. It represents the power of human connection and how, with the right guidance and perseverance, dreams can become a reality regardless of where you're from."

"Geek Ventures is among the top 5% of firms that have completed the VC Lab program worldwide. We have been impressed with the detail-oriented fund management, the quality of dealflow, and the focus on immigrant innovation," said Adeo Ressi, managing partner of Decile Capital. "We're excited to support the Geek Ventures team and its growing portfolio."

The firm is targeting 60 total investments for Fund I, with investments ranging from $50,000 to $1 million. Mahaniok is joined by Vadim Rogovskiy as Partner who brings over a decade of experience as a serial venture-backed founder, and Maksym Strukov and Sviatoslava Luhovets as Investment Analysts.