The One Way Summit, an annual event focused on immigrant entrepreneurs in the United States, will return to San Francisco on Oct. 28 and 29, 2026, bringing together startup founders, investors, and technology leaders at a time when immigration policies remain under scrutiny.
Hosted by venture capital firm One Way Ventures, the two-day event is expected to attract more than 1,000 attendees. Startup Grind will co-host the summit’s first international pitch competition for immigrant-led startups.
The announcement comes as immigration to the United States faces increasing restrictions. According to the Brookings Institution, 2025 marked the country’s first year of net negative migration in five decades. Recent U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data also showed a 38.5% decline in eligible H-1B visa registrations for the 2026-2027 cycle compared with the previous year.
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Against that backdrop, the summit aims to highlight the contribution of immigrant entrepreneurs to the U.S. innovation economy.
A recent report by the National Foundation for American Policy found that 59% of U.S. unicorn companies were founded or co-founded by immigrants. The report estimates those companies have created about $5 trillion in value and generated hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The speaker lineup includes Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures; Severin Hacker, co-founder and CTO of Duolingo; Cal Henderson, co-founder and former CTO of Slack; Anna Makanju, vice president of Global Impact at OpenAI; Immad Akhund, founder and CEO of Mercury; Nicolas Dessaigne, general partner at Y Combinator; and Juan Pablo Ortega, co-founder of Rappi and Yuno.
Khosla, an Indian immigrant and a veteran VC who co-founded Sun Microsystems before launching Khosla Ventures in 2004, will headline the event.
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The summit will also feature its inaugural pitch competition for immigrant founders.
Participating startups will be nominated through the event’s ecosystem partner network, which includes organizations such as Startup Island TAIWAN, GBx, OPEN AUSTRIA, and the Latino Business Action Network.
“We see the One Way Summit becoming the event of reference for immigrant founders in the U.S., and anyone who believes in the power of cross-border entrepreneurship,” says Eugene Malobrodsky, Managing Partner at One Way Ventures and organizer of the event.
Founded in 2017, One Way Ventures invests in early-stage startups founded by immigrants in the United States. The firm says it has backed founders from more than 30 countries and currently manages more than $130 million across its funds.
Shubhangi Chowdhury is a Staff Writer at The American Bazaar. She holds a postgraduate degree in Mass Communication and Journalism and brings a strong foundation in content writing and copywriting. With a passion for storytelling and a growing interest in impactful reporting, she is now contributing to the field of journalism.
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