Geek Ventures & Incisive Ventures: The Immigrant Founder Advantage
Immigrant founders outperform in venture-backed startups, yet they often face unique hurdles in fundraising, scaling, and navigating immigration policies. At Geek Ventures' and Incisive Ventures' side event during SXSW 2025 in Austin, Texas, we’re bringing together top investors and immigrant entrepreneurs to discuss:
What makes immigrant founders uniquely positioned for success
How investors are backing the next wave of immigrant-led startups
Fundraising strategies & overcoming regulatory challenges
Speakers:
Ihar Mahaniok, the founder and Managing Partner of Geek Ventures, is an immigrant engineering leader turned investor. Ihar grew up in Belarus, where he studied Computer Science. He has over 20 years of experience building code, ML models, and engineering teams for startups and conglomerates, including Google and Meta. As an angel investor, Ihar has invested in 150+ startups. Companies he has backed at seed include unicorns such as Instacard, PandaDoc, People.ai, Airbyte, and Jeeves. Ihar moved to the U.S. in 2013 and founded Geek Ventures in 2021 to advance his mission to support visionary immigrant entrepreneurs.
Martin Tobias is the Managing Partner of Incisive Ventures, a pre-seed venture fund investing in technology companies that reduce friction at scale. Over the years, Martin Tobias has raised over $500M in equity, project finance, and working capital for companies where he served as CEO. He has also personally invested in over 70 startups and led about half a dozen through venture funds. Along the way, he has owned a handful of bars, restaurants, and real estate, including a highly entertaining live music rock club. Tobias invests in renewable energy and technology both personally and through Element 8, while also engaging in charitable work through the Martin Tobias Family Foundation.
Nikos Iatropoulos, the Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer at IA Global Ventures, leads fundraising, investor relations, and investment strategy, with a focus on supporting foreign-born entrepreneurs in the U.S. Previously, he was Managing Partner at Rex Tech Ventures, where he launched 10 technology companies across PropTech, InsureTech, and FinTech. Before that, he spent six years at Kairos Ventures as COO and Regional Partner, helping grow assets under management fivefold, expanding academic partnerships, and serving on 11 company boards, overseeing two acquisitions. He's also a serial entrepreneur and has called Austin home since 2016.
Dan Hnatkovskyy is the CEO and co-founder of Jome, a marketplace that helps homebuyers to search, compare, and buy new construction homes. They recently raised a $9.8M Series A round, bringing their total funding to $16.5M. Dan, a serial entrepreneur originally from Ukraine, was featured on the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 Austin List, is a member of the Forbes Technology Council, and previously exited his startup Brainify B.V. to a strategic investor.
Alyssa Padron, the Program Manager at Village Capital, is committed to supporting diverse and cause-driven entrepreneurs toward economic equity across the national ecosystem. Throughout roles in accelerators, startup operations, and venture capital, she has worked with over 100 startup founders, connecting them with tools, resources, and networks for growth. At Village Capital, she leads the US Women in Tech accelerator, supporting women-led ventures increasing access to economic mobility and essential services, and the Resource program, an ‘accelerator for accelerators’ supporting community-led Entrepreneur Support Organizations.
This is the event for those who are looking to tap into one of the most dynamic segments of the startup ecosystem.
Agenda:
5:00 pm | Doors
5:30 pm | Panel discussion begins
6:30 pm | Panel discussion ends, networking begins
7:45 pm | Event ends
Partners
EisnerAmper: EisnerAmper is one of the world's largest business consulting and accounting firms, ranking around 15th in the US. Their Venture Team provides comprehensive finance, accounting, tax, and operational support to funders and founders within the venture and startup ecosystem. They work with over 1,000 venture capital, private equity funds, and family offices, offering extensive fund administration, management, tax, and advisory services. For startup founders, their skilled team of fractional CFOs, controllers, accountants, and HR experts serve as a complete finance department and back office for over 100 startups, ensuring they are diligence-ready and prepared for key business activities.
Incisive Ventures: Incisive Ventures is a pre-seed venture capital firm that invests in technologies that reduce friction at scale. 76% of portfolio companies they back have succeeded in raising institutional Seed or A follow-on rounds from top-tier VCs. In the last 3 years, their portfolio companies have raised over $2.5B in follow-on financing.
Neuvation Ventures: Launched in 2022, Neuvation Ventures is a Baltimore-based impact investment fund investing in ideas, research, and early-stage companies in Brain Health. The goal of Neuvation Ventures is to remove potential early-stage failures, increase offerings for the community by creating a whole new market in this highly unmet need. Neuvation Ventures will increase early-stage funding by providing pre-seed and seed funding to establish proof of concept and product-market fit.
Spots are limited, apply to attend.