GRA Venture Fund

Michelle Jarrard serves as Managing Director and leads the fund's investment activities. Jarrard has been with the GRA since the mid-2010s, previously working as a consultant at McKinsey & Company and with a background in bioethics. She oversees the pipeline that connects research originating at Georgia's member universities with seed and early-stage capital.

The GRA Venture Fund is a wholly owned program of the Georgia Research Alliance, a nonprofit entity formed in 1990 by Georgia business leaders and the state's research universities. The Alliance itself does not operate as a fund-of-funds — it uses the Venture Fund as its direct investment vehicle to commercialize intellectual property emerging from partner campuses.

Yes. The fund's mandate requires companies to maintain a significant operating presence in Georgia. This is a core feature of its economic-development charter — the capital is deployed with the explicit goal of building companies that generate jobs and tax revenue inside the state.

The fund writes initial checks at the seed and early stage, often serving as the first institutional investor in a university spinout. It will also participate in follow-on rounds for existing portfolio companies, but the thesis is built around catalyzing a company's earliest formation from lab-stage intellectual property.

The fund's portfolio focuses on Georgia, but some companies have attracted co-investment from out-of-state venture firms as they grow. The mandate does not prevent non-Georgia investors from participating alongside the fund, though the underlying companies are Georgia-rooted.

Investment sectors align with the research strengths of the GRA's member universities, including enterprise software, digital health, renewable energy, advanced materials, and agricultural technology. The 2023 agtech initiative is a direct extension of the University of Georgia's longstanding agricultural research program.

Capital comes from the Georgia Research Alliance's endowment, state funding, and private-sector contributions from Georgia-based corporations and foundations. Returns from investments are recycled back into the fund, creating a self-renewing pool rather than distributing proceeds to limited partners.