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Unshackled Ventures company logo
Venture Capital
unshackledvc.com

Investments

39

Portfolio Exits

1

Funds

3

Service Providers

1

About Unshackled Ventures

Unshackled is an early stage venture capital company. It aims to invest in companies founded by immigrants. It was founded in 2015 and is based in Palo Alto, California.

Headquarters Location

95 3rd Street

Palo Alto, California,

United States

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Latest Unshackled Ventures News

Unshackled Ventures: This Firm Focuses On Retaining Foreign Talent and Its Founders Have Raised Over $730 Million

Sep 22, 2023

Unshackled Ventures is the first and only early-stage venture capital fund that is focused on retaining foreign talent in the U.S. By investing in immigrants and helping them secure visas, the firm tapped into undiscovered super-talent by helping foreign-born founders turn their innovative ideas into the next great American company. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Unshackled Ventures’ founding partners, Manan Mehta and Nitin Pachisia to learn more. Background Of Manan Mehta And Nitin Pachisia Manan Mehta and Nitin Pachisia founded Unshackled in 2014 after experiencing firsthand the arduous and time-consuming process of starting a business while going through the visa process in the U.S. Mehta and Pachisia said: “Before starting Unshackled, we met at an EdTech startup called Kno, and there was an immediate connection as we both saw the world the same way. Later on, we both left that company to start our own businesses. We began to meet with entrepreneurs across the Bay Area. Again and again, we saw the same theme emerge: some of the most talented people in our network—often building the most exciting new projects—had the hardest time setting up the basic infrastructure to build a company.” “The most challenging part was often attaining the correct visa to work in the U.S. Everyone on our team has either witnessed or been through the profound challenge of building a life and a company in an unfamiliar place. As an immigrant from India, Nitin had to moonlight at his first startup while maintaining his ‘real’ full-time job—the one that sponsored his visa. In our years working across startups and large organizations in the U.S., it was clear there was a market need for a venture firm that excelled at immigration and helped to remove hurdles on the immigrant’s journey.” Evolution Of Unshackled’s Thesis How has Unshackled’s thesis evolved over time? Mehta and Pachisia revealed: “Since our inception nine years ago, we’re closer than ever to our company’s roots and key mission to invest in immigrant founders at the earliest stages of their startup journey, and we’ve evolved quite a bit. We’re proud to have launched our new founder-in-residence program,  Eighteen150 . The program not only lets us discover incredible solo immigrant founders early on in their founding process but also takes the restraints of immigration off of their plates so they can focus on building their companies. We opt to see the potential of a founder right in the beginning of meeting them, and we’re thrilled to have the resources to support some of the world’s brightest talent.” “As it stands, our main priority and goal is to ensure great talent isn’t held back by immigration laws. We’re here to scale as long as immigrants keep coming to America. We believe immigrants and immigrant entrepreneurs are our national advantage.” Challenges Faced What challenges have Mehta and Pachisia faced in building Unshackled, and has the current macroeconomic climate affected the firm? Mehta and Pachisia noted: “Despite the current climate, we’re happy to share that we’ve closed our latest Fund III at $35 million to continue investing in visionary immigrant entrepreneurs at the seed level. We’re one of the market’s most institutionally backed early-stage funds and are building a generational capital base that can support us. As long as America exists, we need to exist.” Favorite Memory What has been a favorite memory working for Unshackled so far? Mehta and Pachisia reflected: “We’ve had so many incredible memories building our firm, but watching our first H1-B founder get his green card in under three years with our support was one of the most impactful. Being able to help someone to pursue their American dreams is something we keep sight of and continue to keep as our top priority for long-term success.” “Ultimately, there’s nothing more rewarding than hearing the incredible stories of success and moments of hardships our founders have overcome. It’s why we invest as early as we do. We’re attracted to the hardship and the grit, and if you come knocking on our door, we can now help you earlier than ever with Eighteen150.” Significant Milestones What have been some of Unshackled’s most significant milestones? Mehta and Pachisia cited: “The close of our Fund III raise this past June, doubling our AUM, and now the launch of our Eighteen150 investment program for solo entrepreneurs.” “We created this founder-in-residence program because we understand immigrant founders endure more challenges and significant barriers. With the 2023 visa filing system allotting a mere 85,000 H1-B petitions for over 781,000 applicants, at Unshackled, we’re helping discover and fund the world’s top talent in the U.S., giving them the guidance and sponsorship they need to grow their businesses successfully.” “We ensure the U.S. maintains a competitive advantage in the global race to produce lasting companies that create jobs. Through this investment with Eighteen 150, we can support founders even earlier in their journey.” Investment Success Stories Upon asking Mehta and Pachisia about investment success stories, they replied: “We’ve invested in a plethora of remarkable startups with incredible founding stories, including Purva Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO at Lilly AI, George Khasin, Founder at Pine Park Health, Kesava Dinakaran, CEO and Co-Founder at Luminai, along with Tony Martens and Maurits Van de Ven Co-Founders at Plantible Foods. We’ve also started investing in Eighteen150 founders, and the growing program includes an F-1 student from MIT focused on enterprise workflows, an H4-dreamer from UCLA focused on a company solving for human connections and loneliness, and a former H1-B holder and Ph.D. graduate from Harvard focused on climate. AUM And Other Notable Metrics After asking Mehta and Pachisia about assets under management (AUM) and other notable metrics, they revealed: “We’re backed by Cambridge Associates, Cendana, Emerson Collective, California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (IBank), and Sorenson Impact Advisory, and have more than doubled our AUM with our latest Fund III raise. Our firm is 73% institutionally backed, and collectively, our founders have raised over $734 million to continue growing their exceptional companies.” Industry Focus What are some of the industries that Unshackled is focused on? Mehta and Pachisia commented: “We have 18 investments with Fund III, including Masa Finance, a web3 identify infrastructure layer; Cache Energy, a long-duration energy storage Company; and Formally, a generative AI legal tech company.” “When investing, we focus on and support the founder, not just their ideas. So our portfolio includes a range of technology startups, spanning generative AI to climate technology and healthcare, all representing founders across 35 countries.” Differentiation From Other Firms What differentiates Unshackled from other firms? Mehta and Pachisia pointed out: “Unshackled is the first and only early-stage venture capital fund that allows unrecognized and excluded immigrant founders to start companies in the U.S.” “We have successfully completed 231 immigration filings, invested in over 80 businesses, and created 1100+ jobs to date without a single founder returning to their home country since we started the firm. We personally have experienced how difficult it can be to start a business as an immigrant in the U.S. With our expertise and understanding, we act as a surrogate family, providing money and support our portfolio companies don’t have, with proven returns on our investments.” “We take the burden of financial and immigration restraints off of talented founders so they can focus on growing their businesses, and with our latest $35 million fundraise, we allocated $5 million to launch the first-of-its-kind founder-in-residence program, Eighteen150.” Future Goals What are some of Unshackled’s future goals? Mehta and Pachisia explained: “Re-write the narrative on immigrants in America. There’s a toxic idea out there that immigrants take jobs from Americans. We want to highlight and pave the way for the opposite story: immigrant founders create jobs. To shift that narrative, our mission is to remove the bottlenecks that prevent immigrants from starting companies. Our success can help shift the conversation and work to celebrate the contribution of the hungry and creative entrepreneurs who come to America with big dreams ready to bring them to life.” “We aim to continue to grow a platform for all immigrants to launch companies in America. We see a world where the future Chobani and Stripes both exist on the immigration support and platform we built. This means main street businesses get to build alongside venture businesses.” Additional Thoughts Any other topics you would like to discuss? Mehta and Pachisia concluded: “We started Unshackled to help as many immigrant entrepreneurs as possible, regardless of immigration status. We want to encourage all immigrant solo entrepreneurs interested to pitch us your story. Details on how to get in touch can be found on our company’s website unshackledvc.com . Trending on Pulse 2.0

Unshackled Ventures Investments

39 Investments

Unshackled Ventures has made 39 investments. Their latest investment was in Maximus as part of their Series A on August 8, 2022.

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Unshackled Ventures Investments Activity

investments chart

Date

Round

Company

Amount

New?

Co-Investors

Sources

8/3/2022

Series A

Maximus

$10M

Yes

3

5/16/2022

Pre-Seed

Formally

$2.3M

Yes

1

5/11/2022

Seed VC

PrismPop

$5M

Yes

6

5/4/2022

Pre-Seed

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$99M

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10

4/11/2022

Seed VC

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$99M

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10

Date

8/3/2022

5/16/2022

5/11/2022

5/4/2022

4/11/2022

Round

Series A

Pre-Seed

Seed VC

Pre-Seed

Seed VC

Company

Maximus

Formally

PrismPop

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Amount

$10M

$2.3M

$5M

$99M

$99M

New?

Yes

Yes

Yes

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Co-Investors

Sources

3

1

6

10

10

Unshackled Ventures Portfolio Exits

1 Portfolio Exit

Unshackled Ventures has 1 portfolio exit. Their latest portfolio exit was Immediately on July 16, 2016.

Date

Exit

Companies

Valuation
Valuations are submitted by companies, mined from state filings or news, provided by VentureSource, or based on a comparables valuation model.

Acquirer

Sources

7/16/2016

Acq - Talent

$99M

1

Date

7/16/2016

Exit

Acq - Talent

Companies

Valuation

$99M

Acquirer

Sources

1

Unshackled Ventures Fund History

3 Fund Histories

Unshackled Ventures has 3 funds, including Unshackled Ventures Fund III.

Closing Date

Fund

Fund Type

Status

Amount

Sources

6/27/2023

Unshackled Ventures Fund III

$35M

1

5/2/2019

Unshackled Ventures Fund II

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$99M

10

11/13/2014

Unshackled Fund

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$99M

10

Closing Date

6/27/2023

5/2/2019

11/13/2014

Fund

Unshackled Ventures Fund III

Unshackled Ventures Fund II

Unshackled Fund

Fund Type

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Status

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Amount

$35M

$99M

$99M

Sources

1

10

10

Unshackled Ventures Service Providers

1 Service Provider

Unshackled Ventures has 1 service provider relationship

Service Provider

Associated Rounds

Provider Type

Service Type

Counsel

General Counsel

Service Provider

Associated Rounds

Provider Type

Counsel

Service Type

General Counsel

Partnership data by VentureSource

Unshackled Ventures Team

2 Team Members

Unshackled Ventures has 2 team members, including current Founding Partner, Manan Mehta.

Name

Work History

Title

Status

Manan Mehta

Founding Partner

Current

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Name

Manan Mehta

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Work History

Title

Founding Partner

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Status

Current

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