Geek Ventures

Ihar Mahaniok, an immigrant engineering leader with over 20 years of experience building code and machine learning models for startups and conglomerates, founded Geek Ventures in 2021 after seeing the difficulties immigrant entrepreneurs faced when trying to raise capital and make connections within the U.S. venture-capital ecosystem. Prior to Geek Ventures, Mahaniok invested in notable unicorns as an angel investor including Instacart, PandaDoc, People.ai, Airbyte, and Jeeves at the pre-seed and seed stages, and in hundreds of other successful companies.

Today, the Geek Ventures team includes Maks Strukov, Alexander Zemlyak, Masha Vasylyeva, and Sarah Romanko.
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Maks Strukov joined in 2022 as an Analyst and soon grew into an Associate, adding analytical and financial expertise, empowering Geek Ventures to go broader and deeper.

Alexander Zemlyak joined in 2023 as a Principal. He brings a decade of experience in venture capital and an impressive track record, contributing significantly to identifying and investing in the most innovative and impactful ideas and founders. 

Masha Vasylyeva joined in 2023 as an Executive Assistant. She contributes operational expertise to Geek Ventures to ensure the smooth and effective functioning of all internal processes.

Sarah Romanko joined in 2024 as an Associate. She brings her experience building relationships with VCs, founders, and community builders, sourcing and evaluating startups, and performing due diligence, as well as significant connections in the Austin ecosystem.

Geek Ventures is committed to investing in bold, innovative, and brilliant immigrant entrepreneurs, coming to the US from all over the world. We believe that the challenges immigrants face when coming to a completely new environment nurture resilience and determination. We aspire to become guiding lights for such founders in order to accelerate their integration into the new tech ecosystem.