Michigan Biomedical Venture Fund (MBVF) Manager

Hirak Parikh is the Program Manager for the Michigan Biomedical Seed fund. Initially funded by a $3M gift from the Monroe-Brown Family Foundation, the Seed Fund provides necessary early-stage capital to nascent U-M biomedical start-up companies to successfully commercialize their research in the most impactful way possible. This fund bridges the gap between existing University grant programs and venture capital. With the help of an external advisory Board, Hirak is responsible for evaluating and making investments ($50K to $300K) in biomedical spin-outs from U-M in the domains of therapeutics, devices, diagnostics, and health IT/digital technologies. He serves as a mentor to the funded companies and supports other commercialization efforts and programs at the University.

Before taking on this new role, Hirak was Principal Scientist and Director of US Operations for The Neuromarketing Labs – a startup based in Germany. His previous background is in neuroscience research and product development. Hirak is a Wolverine, having obtained his PhD in Biomedical Engineering and an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan. In his free time, when not playing with his two daughters and dog, he can be found putting in a few miles running.