Geek Ventures launches its first fund of $23M

Established by Ukrainian Vadim Rogovskiy and Belarusian Ihar Mahaniok, Geek Ventures has launched Fund I and has $23 million in capital commitments to invest in immigrant tech founders at the pre-seed and seed stages, Mahaniok wrote on LinkedIn.

• The Geek Ventures fund was launched in December 2021 by the Belarusian angel investor Ihar Mahaniok and the founder of 3DLOOK, Vadym Rogovskyi. The fund is registered in the USA, and is focused on immigrant founders since its launch.
• Since 2021, the firm has invested in 35 companies, including Filmustage, Nomad Data and Spice AI. Four of them are Ukrainian startups Competera, V-Art, Propertymate, and Spokk, which were added to Geek Ventures’ portfolio during 1.5 months of the full-scale war.
• Geek Ventures Fund I will focus on immigrant tech founders at the pre-seed and seed stages. The amount of each investment will be from $50,000 to $1 million, the fund told TechCrunch.
• Geek Ventures founders began fundraising for the new fund back in October 2021, and planned to raise only $15 million. In June 2023, they managed to close Fund I at $23 million from over 70 LPs. One Way Ventures, Unshackled Ventures, BGV, and PandaDoc founders Mikita Mikado and Sergey Barysiuk are among them.
• Now, the team aims to use its first $23 million fund for one or two companies a month and is targeting 60 total investments.