Unshackled Ventures — Investment Thesis & Preferences

Unshackled Ventures Research

Investment Thesis

Unshackled Ventures is a pre-seed focused venture capital fund dedicated exclusively to backing immigrant founders in the United States. The fund's core belief is that U.S. immigrants possess exceptional entrepreneurial talent and world-class skills, but face systemic barriers through immigration constraints that prevent them from fully realizing their potential. By removing immigration obstacles and providing capital, operational support, and community resources, Unshackled believes immigrant founders can build revolutionary companies and create lasting economic impact.

The fund's unique value proposition centers on the reality that most venture capital ignores a critical barrier for immigrant founders: visa and immigration status. Unshackled provides not just capital but also full immigration support, including visa sponsorship and pathways to permanent residency. This positions the firm as the only VC with immigration attorneys as general partners.

Stage and Check Size

Unshackled is a pre-seed specialist with a strong conviction to back founders "at day 0." The fund typically invests:

Check Size: $300K-$500K for pre-seed rounds, though they have invested higher or lower depending on capital efficiency and specific verticals
Stage Focus: Primarily Pre-Seed stage when founders have an idea, team, and initial customer validation research
Round Size: Prefer to lead pre-seed rounds typically under $1M, occasionally larger in specific verticals
Conviction Over Traction: The fund explicitly states that it's "never too early" and will invest before a product exists, betting on exceptional people and unique perspectives

Recent Activity

As of early 2025, Unshackled Ventures Fund III continues active deployment:

Fund III Size: $35M (announced Feb 2024, more than doubled AUM)
Total Investments to Date: 85+ investments across the fund's lifetime
2025 Activity: Recent investments include TODAQ Micro (Aug 2025), Civic IQ (Feb 2025)
Portfolio Track Record: 66% of portfolio companies graduate to seed stage; $1.1B+ raised by portfolio companies post-investment

Portfolio Highlights

Unshackled's portfolio spans diverse sectors with current spotlight companies including:

Current Portfolio Companies:

Apolink (Space & Communication) - Precision optical relays for satellite connectivity
Cache Energy (Climate & Energy) - Long-term energy storage solutions
Masa (Fintech) - Hybrid credit protocol and decentralized credit bureau
Luminai (AI & Enterprise) - Customer support automation platform
Pine Park Health (Healthcare) - Senior healthcare provider
Pod Foods (Food & Agriculture) - Tech-enabled grocery supply chain
Plantible Foods (Food & Agriculture) - Plant-based nutrition solutions

Notable Exits:

21 Labs (Acquired) - Automated mobile testing platform
Arise (Acquired) - Distributed ledger for hotels

Team and Leadership

The leadership team comprises experienced founders and operators:

Manan Mehta - Founding Partner, previously ran marketing at Kno (acq. by Intel 2013), investment banker
Shaherose Charania - Partner, former founder/operator, host of First founder podcast
Eric Ries - Incorruptible Partner, author of The Lean Startup
Nitin Pachisia - General Partner, former executive at high-profile tech companies
Alexis Zamira Maciel - Principal
Fernanda Sesto - Principal

The partnership structure is notably collaborative with all team members involved in investment decisions without a title-driven hierarchy.

Immigration Support - Core Differentiator

What makes Unshackled uniquely valuable is their commitment to removing immigration as a barrier:

Full Immigration Support: Provides visa sponsorship and green card support at no additional cost to founders
Track Record: 230+ immigration filings across 13 different work-authorization categories with 100% success rate
Multiple Pathways: Support ranges from H1B sponsorship to O1 extraordinary ability petitions to EB-1 permanent residency
Immigration Partners: Only VC with immigration attorneys as general partners
Fast-Track Success: Successfully fast-tracked green cards in less than 6 months in some cases
14+ Immigration Categories: Experience with E3, EB1, H1B, H4, J1, L1, O1, OPT, PERM, TN and more

Geographic Focus

Headquarters: Sunnyvale, CA with additional offices in New York and Florida
Portfolio Distribution: Investments across Silicon Valley, Brooklyn, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Diego, Atlanta, Toronto
Team Presence: Denver, Texas, Florida, Hong Kong, Quebec City, and Kenya
Founder Diversity: Portfolio represents 30+ countries across all 6 continents
U.S. Market Focus: Prefer founders already in U.S. or moving to U.S.; occasionally work with founders outside country

Investment Process

Key Decision Criteria:

Exceptional founding teams with self-awareness about strengths and blind spots
Unique insights and hypotheses about problems being solved
Understanding of market inflection points
Capital-efficient approaches to proving customer willingness to pay
Bold, foundational ideas (not incremental improvements)
Teams with technical depth and domain expertise

Process Characteristics:

Conviction-driven and highly selective
15-18 investments per year despite significant capital
Fast feedback on passes, quick movement to offers when aligned
Transparent communication throughout process
Involvement level determined by founder needs (not prescriptive)

Terms:

Prefer Standard SAFE (post-money) with side letters
Open to SAFEs, convertible notes, priced rounds, and other structures
Target 8-12% ownership
Lead 75%+ of investments but comfortable co-investing
Don't require board seats; believe relationship is more valuable at this stage

Sector Coverage

While sector-agnostic, portfolio emphasizes:

AI & Enterprise software
Climate & Clean Energy technologies
Fintech & Payments
Food & Agriculture tech
Healthcare innovation
Space & Communication
Consumer & E-commerce
Web3 and blockchain
Specialized services
Transportation & Logistics

Community and Support Network

Beyond capital and immigration:

Active Slack community for portfolio founders
Regular founder events and conferences
Founder series enabling organic relationships and knowledge flow
Head of Community & Culture dedicated to founder success
Network access enabling $700M+ in follow-on capital raised by portfolio
Hiring support through network of technical talent
Strategic planning and fundraising support for key milestones

Founder Profile They Back

Unshackled explicitly targets:

Immigrant founders with exceptional drive and resilience
Teams that have "beaten global competition, bureaucracy, and doubt"
Technical founders with deep domain expertise
People with unique perspectives from diverse backgrounds
Founders solving large market opportunities
Founders determined to build the next revolutionary companies

Unique Competitive Advantages

Only VC with immigration attorneys as general partners
100% success rate on 230+ immigration filings
Zero-cost immigration support included in investment
Pre-seed conviction investing before product/traction
Exclusively focused on immigrant founder ecosystem
Hands-on support during challenging periods ("wartime" investors)
66% of portfolio graduates to seed stage
$1.1B+ post-investment capital raised by portfolio companies
1,000+ American jobs created through portfolio

Fund Performance Metrics

Total Investments: 85+ across all funds
Fund III: $35M, actively deploying
Graduation Rate: 66% of portfolio companies graduate to seed
Post-Investment Capital Raised: $1.1B+
Jobs Created: 1,000+ through portfolio companies
Exits to Date: 2 (21 Labs acquired, Arise acquired)
Investment Rate: 15-18 companies per year

Recent Strategic Positioning (2025)

Continued active fund deployment with recent closes (TODAQ Micro, Civic IQ)
Annual General Meeting held with leadership team guiding fund direction
Immigration support remains core differentiator and value proposition
Selective approach maintained to ensure hands-on partnership
Community building emphasized as key to long-term portfolio success