BOSTON, Sept. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- One Way Ventures, the early-stage venture capital fund backing exceptional immigrant founders, has announced plans to open an office in the San Francisco Bay Area with AnchorFree Co-founder Eugene Malobrodsky joining the team as Partner to lead efforts to build out One Way's West Coast operations.
One Way Ventures invests in immigrant-founded pre-seed to Series A startups across a range of different sectors including fintech, digital health, and deep tech. One Way invests throughout the U.S. and Canada and has had success with investments in companies such as Brex, Chipper Cash, and Momentus. Malobrodsky originally joined the One Way team as a Silicon Valley-based Venture Partner in 2019 and will lead efforts to build out the firm's West Coast presence as a full-time Partner in the Bay Area.
Originally from Lithuania, Malobrodsky is the Co-founder of two US-based startups. His latest venture was consumer privacy and security company AnchorFree, which raised over $350 million from investors such as Bert Roberts (former CEO and Chairman of MCI), Doug Maine (former CFO of IBM), and Goldman Sachs, and had products downloaded by more than 600 million customers. Since its inception, Malobrodsky was responsible for business growth by managing engineering, operational expansion, and corporate strategy. In May 2018, AnchorFree was acquired by private equity fund WndrCo.
Malobrodsky serves as a Board Member and Advisor to two startups: Zero Cognitive Systems and Geozilla. He also received Silicon Valley's Best Tech Manager Award at the 2018 Timmy Awards.
"When I first immigrated to the US, I remember having this overwhelming realization about the sheer number of opportunities at my fingertips. I wasn't sure how to bring my ideas to fruition but was lucky enough to find mentors who guided me through it all. My own experience is the reason the One Way mission resonates with me so strongly. Now that I am able to, I am excited to empower other ambitious immigrant entrepreneurs working to bring their innovations to market and impact the world for the better," said Malobrodsky.
Malobrodsky will be joining the firm alongside Founder and Managing Partner Semyon Dukach, a refugee from the Soviet Union and the former Director of Techstars Boston (and famously a leader of one of the MIT Blackjack teams). He will also be joining One Way Ventures Partner Lex Zhao, an immigrant from China who was previously at Bridgewater Associates and Vestwell, a venture-backed fintech startup.
"We've enjoyed getting to know Eugene over the past year in his capacity as Venture Partner. His deep industry expertise and expansive network have been invaluable across a number of investments we've worked on together. We look forward to having him on board in a more meaningful role as we start to build our next fund," said Semyon Dukach.
Malobrodksy will join One Way Ventures this fall and will focus on SaaS, security software, consumer products, and IoT.
"America has been reaping the economic returns of immigrant grit for the past 250 years–this is just a new way to benefit from and highlight that fact," said Malobrodsky.
The One Way Ventures immigrant focus grew out of the Partners' own experiences with immigration, as well as the telling statistic that more than half of America's billion-dollar startups were founded or co-founded by immigrants.
Malobrodsky noted that "in a society that sometimes feels driven by division and exclusion, it feels good to be able to say 'you're welcome here' and 'we've got your back'.
About One Way Ventures
One Way Ventures is a Boston based early-stage VC firm backing exceptional immigrant founders. Founded on the premise that immigration naturally self-selects for the entrepreneurial-minded, One Way believes immigrant founders have a competitive advantage when building impactful, global companies. One Way is currently investing out of its first $28M fund and has backed more than forty immigrant-founded companies to date, including Brex, Chipper Cash, and Momentus. For more information visit https://onewayvc.com/ and follow us @onewayvc.
Contact Information
Annie Patyk
annie@onewayvc.com
973-508-7442
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SOURCE One Way Ventures