Unshackled Ventures
Unshackled Ventures is a San Francisco pre-seed venture fund that backs immigrant founders in the United States. It pairs the first cheque with the visa support founders need to stay. Water is not its thesis; it surfaces only when an immigrant founds a water company. As of 2026 it has backed 2 water companies, rated Committed by (don't) Waste Water.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Unshackled Ventures was started in 2014 by two people who had lived the problem it now solves. Manan Mehta and Nitin Pachisia met building an ed-tech startup, watched brilliant foreign-born colleagues get trapped behind the U.S. visa system, and built a fund that writes the first cheque AND sponsors the founder's visa and green card so they can legally stay and build. Ten years on, it has backed more than 200 immigrant founders across roughly 80 companies.
Unshackled Ventures is sector-agnostic by design, because immigrant talent does not cluster in one industry. Its founders build in AI, space, biotech, fintech and, every so often, water. Water is never a separate thesis here; it arrives attached to a founder. The fund's two water names are both immigrant-led companies that happened to be solving a water problem, not the output of any water strategy.
Unshackled Ventures' two water names show the pattern exactly. PolyGone Systems, a Princeton spin-out co-founded by designer Yidian Liu, builds biomimetic filters that capture microplastics from water; PlutoShift, founded by Prateek Joshi, built AI that helped industrial and utility operators predict how their water systems would behave. One is hardware in the water, the other was software on top of it, and the only thread between them is the kind of founder Unshackled exists to back.
Unshackled Ventures is the fund a lot of immigrant-built water technology quietly starts with, the cheque that arrives with an immigration lawyer attached. As of 2026 it has backed 2 water companies across 2 deals, rated Committed by (don't) Waste Water, and as long as foreign-born founders keep choosing water problems, more wet companies will keep turning up in a portfolio that never set out to be about water.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 2 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Unshackled Ventures invest in?
- Unshackled Ventures backs immigrant founders building early-stage startups in the United States, across sectors from AI and space to biotech and water. It is sector-agnostic by design and invests at the earliest stage, pairing pre-seed capital with hands-on immigration support. Water appears only through immigrant-founded companies, never a dedicated water thesis.
- Does Unshackled Ventures invest in water?
- Yes, but only incidentally. Unshackled Ventures has backed 2 water companies: PolyGone Systems, which captures microplastics from water, and PlutoShift, which built AI for industrial water operations. Both are immigrant-led startups rather than pure water plays. (don't) Waste Water rates Unshackled's water commitment Committed.
- Who runs Unshackled Ventures?
- Unshackled Ventures was co-founded in 2014 by Manan Mehta and Nitin Pachisia, who met building an ed-tech startup and lived the U.S. visa struggle themselves. Mehta leads as Managing Partner, while Pachisia is now Partner Emeritus. Partner Shaherose Charania and Principal Alexis Zamira Maciel round out the investment team.
- Where is Unshackled Ventures based?
- Unshackled Ventures is headquartered in San Francisco, California. It backs immigrant founders building companies anywhere in the United States, not only the Bay Area, and has actively sourced startups from cities such as Philadelphia and beyond since it was founded in 2014.
- Is Unshackled Ventures a water fund?
- No. Unshackled Ventures is a pre-seed venture fund for immigrant founders, not a water fund. Its mission is helping foreign-born entrepreneurs start and stay in the United States through capital and visa support. Water shows up only when an immigrant founder builds a water company, such as PolyGone Systems.