One Way Ventures, the Boston-based venture capital firm that only backs companies with at least one immigrant founder, has closed its second fund.
Lex Zhao, a Boston-based partner at the firm, said the fund closed on Jan. 1 at $57.5 million. A regulatory document filed on Jan. 4 reports approximately $56.4 million as the amount sold to limited partners, to which general partners also added. A total of 168 investors have invested in the offering, according to the document.
Launched by immigrants and former Techstars Boston directors Eveline Buchatskiy and Semyon Dukach, One Way Ventures has backed more than 40 immigrant-founded companies, including Boston-based data company Sentenai Inc. and 3D card manufacturer LovePop Inc.
Last year, the firm announced plans to open an office in the San Francisco Bay Area (its first outpost outside Massachusetts) and promoted Eugene Malobrodsky to partner to build out the firm’s West Coast operations.
The second fund is approximately double the size of the firm's inaugural fund, which closed in 2018 at $28.5 million. The larger size of the new fund will allow One Way Ventures to make larger investments in companies and lead funding rounds more often, according to Zhao.
While 15 companies that were funded through Fund I are based in Boston, approximately a quarter of the startups backed out of the first fund are based in the San Francisco Bay Area. With these numbers in mind, the planned opening of a new office in that area represents "an extension of what we've been doing," Zhao said.
One Way Ventures still hasn't finalized plans to open a physical office in California because of the ongoing uncertainty created by the pandemic, but it is planning on hiring an associate in the San Francisco Bay Area in the next weeks. "We tend to invest nationally," Zhao said.
2020 Year in Photos
Signs on Sip Cafe, in Boston’s Financial District, show the moving target for reopening.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
RNs and other Mass General Hospital employees wait on line at Harvard Gardens which provided a complimentary lunch to all MGH employees on Wednesday, April 1.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Dozens protest the killing of Black men and women by police at Faneuil Hall. Led by members of the Boston Men’s Dinner Group, dozens held signs as they gathered in peaceful protest.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
The Cambridge Innovation Center, through its subsidiary, CIC Health, has opened a drive-through Covid-19 testing site at Newton’s Riverside MBTA station. It is the latest step in the company’s sudden transformation from a provider of co-working space to coronavirus testing.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Outdoor dining came to Boston’s North End, where restaurants and cafes were allowed to set up dining areas on the streets and sidewalks. Diners were served drinks along Hanover Street.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Jenn Shimer, general manager and buyer for The Wine Emporium, in Boston’s South End, and Dan DiStefano, deliver wine ordered on Drizly to South End homes on their Onewheels. Drizly is an online platform that allows customers to order wine, beer and other alcoholic beverages and have them delivered on their doorsteps.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
A man wears a Boston hat and mask for protection in Boston's Haymarket area.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh walks away after a press conference outside City Hall in the earliest days of the pandemic.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
A masked woman rides an MBTA Green Line train with many open seats traveling along Commonwealth Ave., in Allston.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Lion's mane jellyfish maneuver in their New England Aquarium tanks as a worker wipes down surfaces with disinfectant.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
The Marriott Long Wharf, where state officials say coronavirus started rapidly spreading in Massachusetts due to a Biogen conference.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Harvard University students are supplied with boxes to pack up belongings after being told not to return after 2020's spring break due to the threat of coronavirus.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Parking spots and seats on the MBTA ferry, bound for Rowes Wharf from Hingham, were plentiful earlier this year.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Messages of appreciation and caution fill the marquee of the Paramount Theater in Downtown Crossing.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
A sign above an empty Southeast Expressway warns Boston drivers as the threat of coronavirus has closed all but essential services.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Normally packed with pedestrians and outdoor diners on a gorgeous spring day, outdoor patio furniture at Newbury Street restaurants was stacked up early in the pandemic.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Outside Fenway Park, masks were placed on the sculpture “Teammates”.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
From the perch of a window, a woman observes activity below on Hanover Street in Boston’s North End.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
At South Cove Manor Rehabilitation Center in Quincy, healthcare workers wear protective suits as they test the entire staff of employees for Covid-19.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Dino Funari, Vitamin Sea Brewing co-founder, fulfills customers take out orders. As coronavirus hit, he shifted his business to be one entirely focused on takeout sales.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Jill Tate, a partner at Corinthian Events, who arranges and holds corporate events for clients, has been hit hard by coronavirus shut downs. In mid-February, her daughter Annie, 20, a gifted athlete and Suffolk University Dean’s list junior passed away.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Caffe’ Paradiso, a 58-year-old Italian café located in Boston’s North End is owned by Adriana De Stefano. The cafe, which was forced to pivot to takeout-only service during the pandemic, was started by Adriana’s mom and dad Antonio and Antonietta De Stefano, who moved to Boston from Avellino, Italy, in 1962.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Dr. Eric Dickson, President and CEO at UMass Memorial Health Care, worked with Covid-19 patients each Sunday in a supplemental field tent just outside the ER at UMass Memorial Medical Center.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Peter Stefan is funeral director of Graham, Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlor, located in Worcester. The funeral parlor has become known as the place that will take the unwanted dead, originally under the direction of its founders, and for the last several decades under the ownership of Peter Stefan. Peter also has over 370 people in his basement (including small boxes of the ashes of children), where he leaves a light on at all times to honor them.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
A banner along the Mass Pike at Fenway Park carries a message of support on Opening Day.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Workers for ABM Industries sanitized the MBTA's Back Bay station during business hours to help prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
The Zakim Bridge is nearly empty of travelers during an afternoon rush hour.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Gables Residential Development Director Joseph G Shea takes in a view from the roof of Gables Seaport, a new luxury apartment complex on Congress St., in the Seaport. The area continued to see development as the pandemic raged, with developers planning more lab space.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Helen Boucher, chief of infectious diseases at Tufts Medical Center, is vaccinated by RN Morgan Giarusso. Tufts received 2925 doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday, Dec. 15.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
Reassuring messages were hung on Adirondack chairs along Beach Ave., in Hull.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
