Geek Ventures is raising a second fund, as stated in a recent SEC filing, according to TechCrunch. The New York-based tech venture fund is the brainchild of Ihar Mahaniok, an engineer with over 20 years of experience in building code and machine learning.
The second fund has raised $9 million so far but has no set target amount; its first sale was recorded on Monday, January 13, as stated in the filing.
Helping immigrants in the tech industry
Mahaniok grew up in Belarus, where he did an undergraduate in computer science. He has invested in over 150 startups as an angel investor and has supported unicorns such as Instacart, PandaDoc, and People.AI. As an immigrant, he saw other immigrant entrepreneurs’ challenges when trying to gain capital and build a network within the US venture capital ecosystem.
Subsequently, he founded Geek Ventures in 2021. “Talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not,” he told TechCrunch a few years ago.
What do Geek Ventures do?
When the company launched, it first received $23 million. It became part of a list of other recognized venture firms like Unshackled Ventures and One Way Ventures that set out to help immigrants “Geek Ventures is committed to investing in bold, innovative, and brilliant immigrant entrepreneurs, coming to the US from all over the world,” it says on their website.”
Geek Ventures specialises in SaaS, hardware, and deep tech. It’s cut checks into companies such as the AI developer Spice AI and the networking platform Saturday, as per PitchBook.
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