Dear Friend of One Way,
We hope your year is off to a strong start.
Q4 2023 was busy - we closed a core investment and two follow-ons, helped our portfolio founders weather a few storms…and worked on a new strategic opportunity that may be a game-changer for our next fund. Stay tuned!
In 2023, One Way Ventures launched the Pathfinder Collective (a community of star unicorn founders committed to supporting immigrant early-stage founders).
Five outstanding companies joined our portfolio: Retrocausal, Odyssey SpaceWorks, Ribbon, Tabs and Impilo.
Our existing portfolio companies reached new heights and raised competitive follow-on rounds in a tough market, and a few of them were backed by industry giants.
Last but not least, we completed a full-scale rebranding and launched our new website.
As we gear up for 2024, which promises to be the year of the robots, we are looking for visionary founders who will transform the world. And we, as always, commit to being all hands on deck with the phenomenal entrepreneurs already in our portfolio.
This image was generated by AI - this is what AI thinks modern VC investors look like
New Investments in Q4
Retrocausal | Deeptech
Retrocausal is an AI copilot for manufacturing assembly optimization. The company uses machine vision and generative AI to help manufacturing workers avoid assembly mistakes while assisting industrial engineers in continuously improving shop floor processes.
The CEO, Zeeshan Zia, immigrated from Pakistan, and the CTO, Quoc-Huy Tran, from Vietnam. Zeeshan holds a PhD in computer vision and machine learning, while Quoc-Huy holds a PhD in computer vision. Both come from senior roles at Microsoft, where they published numerous papers and patents while working on the HoloLens product.
Notable portfolio highlights
🤖Instock, an innovative developer of eCommerce fulfillment robots, raised a $6.2M seed round led by Amazon’s Industrial Innovation Fund. Instock’s capabilities have the potential to improve the number of shipments per day and storage density in space-constrained environments, leading to faster deliveries and lower costs. [The Robot Report]
🌎Lynk, the world’s first patented, proven, and commercially licensed satellite-to-phone connectivity provider, has successfully tested a satellite-to-mobile phone call in Newfoundland. Lynk has also just announced plans to head to the public markets via an $800M merger with the Nasdaq:SLAM SPAC led by former professional baseball player Alex Rodriguez. [Techcrunch]
🛰️Odyssey SpaceWorks, which offers internet-controlled space labs for biopharmaceutical research, closed 2023 with a successful launch of their satellite OSW Cazorla. They’re planning a larger launch later this year.
✈️ Destinus, best known for designing hypersonic suborbital hydrogen-powered planes of the future, has unveiled that it has secretly supplied Ukraine with long-range military drones which brought in millions in additional revenues years ahead of our expectations.
📘 Emerge has gained momentum building a multi-sensory communication platform that bridges distance and time via a new partnership with Sony, and is closing an oversubscribed insider round.
📱RaySecur beat its growth forecast in 2023 on the back of strong growth from the prison contraband detection market. They’re developing AI improvements to their automated screening software and are poised for further exceptional growth in 2024.
☁️Burq, which enables corporates to access multiple delivery providers under one roof, has had a phenomenal year, growing transaction volume 10x. It also signed its largest customer yet - a well-known florist company.
🚛Axle, a comprehensive trucking data platform streamlining fleet, fuel, insurance, and logistics, launched its new Beacon product.
Pathfinder Collective Spotlight
The Pathfinder Collective is our advisory network of unicorn founders, dedicated to helping portfolio companies as they scale. Over 25 unicorn founders have joined, including Cal Henderson (Slack), Saeju Jeong (Noom), Severin Hacker (Duolingo), Eric Ly (Linkedin), Kathryn Petralia (Kabbage) and other exceptional entrepreneurs.
These Pathfinders have earned a special mention for helping our portfolio companies navigate difficult challenges last quarter:
Saeju Jeong: CEO & Co-Founder of Noom
Kathryn Petralia: CEO of Keep Financial, Former COO & Co-Founder of Kabbage
One Way Ventures in the News
Why without immigration, the American Dream is just a fantasy. (Fortune)
Early-Stage VC fundraising may soon heat up gain: How immigrant founders should take advantage (Crunchbase)
3 mistakes VCs are making in meetings with immigrant founders (Crunchbase)
How One Way is easing the path for immigrant founders (Venture Capital Journal)
‘Migrant-led start-ups do better’: an interview with Semyon Dukach (Investment Monitor)
View of a Ukrainian-American: Why investors are well-positioned to act during crises (Horasis)
Special Highlight
We want to mention a touching and inspirational book by our friend Kedar Gupta called Carving My Destiny, which gives a glimpse into the immigrant founder's grit and strong family relationships behind his entrepreneurial failures and successes. It’s available on Amazon but we’re happy to send a paper or Kindle copy as a gift to the first 10 people who ask for it, just email masha@onewayvc.com with your address/email if you want one.
Featured Jobs
Interested in working for a venture-backed startup? Explore some of our handpicked selections below or visit our careers page to learn more:
DevOps Engineer at Burq (📍 Remote)
Sales Development Representative at Corvus (📍 Mountain View, CA)
Full Stack Software Engineer at Impilo (📍 Philadelphia, PA)
Marketing Visual Designer at Lazarus (📍 Boston, MA)
Head of Sales at Qashio (📍 Dubai - UAE)
Want More?
Borderless Disruption is our monthly blog. Subscribe if you’re interested in topics spanning immigration, tech, and their global impact.
4 ways to show customers they can trust your generative AI enterprise tool by Luigi La Corte (CEO of Provision) and Leo Arango (Partner at One Way Ventures).