Semyon Dukach

Semyon Dukach is an entrepreneur, investor, and former professional blackjack player. Born in Moscow on October 25, 1968, he came to the United States as an 11-year-old Jewish refugee from the Soviet Union in 1979. He earned a B.S. in Computer Science from Columbia University (1990) and an M.S. in Computer Science from MIT (1993). While at MIT he became a leading figure on the MIT Blackjack Team, playing with the Strategic Investments team beginning in 1992 before splitting off around 1995 to form an independent team known as the "Amphibians." He was the central character in Ben Mezrich's book *Busting Vegas* — the only team member referred to by his real name.

Before becoming an investor, Dukach co-founded technology companies including Vert and Fast Engines, the latter sold to Adero in 2000. He then became a prolific angel investor with more than 100 investments, including early bets on language-learning unicorn Preply, LiDAR company Quanergy, SMTP.com, and Vivox. In 2014 he became Managing Director of Techstars in Boston, running the accelerator program for roughly three years.

In 2017 he left Techstars to found One Way Ventures, an early-stage VC fund built around the thesis that immigrant founders are among the strongest sources of innovation. The firm now manages more than $130M across its funds and has backed founders from over 30 countries. Dukach is also a philanthropist and immigration advocate — he co-founded Cash for Refugees, which has provided direct cash aid to over 15,000 families displaced by the war in Ukraine. In June 2025 the Boston Globe named him the top VC in New England on its Tech Power Players list.

• Invests exclusively in pre-seed and seed-stage companies with at least one immigrant founder, on the conviction that immigrants — ~13% of the US population but founders/co-founders of ~55% of America's billion-dollar startups — are systematically undervalued.
• Check sizes up to roughly $1.5M at the earliest stages.
• Sector-agnostic but active in deeptech, AI/ML, SaaS/enterprise, fintech, consumer, healthcare, logistics, mobility, proptech, and robotics.
• Backs "change makers and those who see the world differently" — founders with grit, an outsider's perspective, and global ambition.
• In his own words (Fortune, 2024), he runs a fund for immigrants because "they're often better than those born here" at building high-impact companies — resilience and drive forged by the immigrant experience are central to what earns a yes.