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.
