Dealflow | May 8, 2019

Unshackled raises $20 million venture fund for immigrant-founded startups

Dennis Price
ImpactAlpha Editor

Dennis Price

ImpactAlpha, May 8 – Palo Alto-based venture capital firm Unshackled Ventures helps “de-risk” investments in foreign-born entrepreneurs by helping immigrant founders secure visas and get the business support they need to grow. The firm has raised a $20 million fund second fund, topping its debut fund by $15.5 million.

“The difference between success and failures is oftentimes who you know and when,” Unshackled’s Manan Mehta, the son of immigrants, told TechCrunch. “We can bring those resources at just 1/200th the size of Andreessen Horowitz to immigrants at day zero.”

Since launching in 2015, the firm has backed 31 companies, including vegan grocer Mylk Guys and plant-based nutrition firm Plantible, driverless truck startup Starsky Robotics, Africa logistics firm Sote Logistics and Togg, which makes radar sensors to monitor seniors in nursing homes. Collectively, the startups have gone on to raise $54 million.

Unshackled’s limited partners include Bloomberg Beta, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures and Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective.