Insider Brief
- Harper Court Ventures Fund I has launched with $25 million to back deep tech startups emerging from the University of Chicago ecosystem.
- The fund targets pre-seed and seed-stage ventures in quantum, AI, life sciences, and energy, embedding directly in the university to support commercialization from lab to launch.
- MFV Partners plans to invest in nearly 40 companies over five years, aiming to elevate Chicago into a globally recognized deep tech hub.
A recently announced $25 million venture fund is putting its broad shoulders behind an effort to ensure that the next wave of transformational deep tech companies won’t just emerge from Silicon Valley or Boston — but also from the labs, startups, and students of the University of Chicago.
The fund, called Harper Court Ventures Fund I, is managed by Silicon Valley-based MFV Partners and is designed to inject early-stage capital into startups coming out of the UChicago ecosystem. The aim: turn Chicago into a top-tier deep tech hub by anchoring a pipeline of companies in quantum computing, AI, life sciences, and energy technologies.
“Our goal is to make Chicago deep tech as one of the strong areas that attracts venture capital funding and builds category-defining companies that come out of this geography,” said Karthee Madasamy, founder of MFV Partners and a UChicago Booth School of Business alumnus. “So that, when the list of top deep tech ecosystems in the world is listed out in say ten years, Chicago is a strong contender which cannot be ignored.”
Filling a Gap in the Market
Harper Court Ventures is targeting a specific pain point in the innovation pipeline: pre-seed and seed-stage companies emerging from university research. These ventures often lack early support, especially in regions without a dense venture capital infrastructure. By planting capital and expertise early, the fund hopes to de-risk these companies enough to attract outside investors.
The goal of this fund is to open up the market, Madasamy said.
“We want to make high-conviction bets that act as a signal that these technologies are worth backing so that other investors can follow,” he added.
Harper Court’s approach focuses on startups with a strong research foundation and ties to the UChicago community, including current faculty, researchers, students, alumni, and participants in programs run by the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The fund has also set up shop inside the Polsky Center, giving it a direct line to research disclosures, university tech transfer activity, and accelerator cohorts.
By embedding itself in the university, the group can be involved at the earliest stages, according to Madasamy. From the moment when a professor is just beginning to disclose an invention or a PhD student is thinking about commercializing a new technique, the fund wants to be part of that journey.
“We basically will have our team sit with them in the Polsky center, so that we work closely with the professors, closely with the PhD students, closely with some of the accelerators and incubators,” said Madasamy. “That way we have first access, or first look at all these companies, right then when they are starting invention disclosures,We are able to weigh in on the commercial prospects and if the inventor wants to build a company, we can get involved right from the start and help them through the process.”
Building a Midwestern Engine for Deep Tech
Chicago’s central location, its proximity to top universities like University of Chicago, Northwestern, Purdue, and UIUC, and access to Fortune 500 manufacturing and healthcare customers make it ripe for a deep tech resurgence, Madasamy said. He sees parallels with earlier roles he played building innovation ecosystems in India and Israel — regions that, over a decade ago, were considered peripheral in tech.
“Chicago already ranks in the top 10 U.S. metro areas for venture dollars,” he said.
But for deep tech, Chicago already boasts many of the main requirements of deep tech — strong research institutions, entrepreneurial talent and access to industrial customers.
What’s missing, according to Madasamy, isn’t just capital, but smart capital.
The city’s historic ties to telecom and industrial R&D, including legacy players like Motorola and Bell Labs, laid the groundwork for scientific leadership. But today, the focus is shifting to frontier areas like quantum and climate tech, both of which are already well-represented in Chicago’s research corridors. UChicago operates two U.S. Department of Energy national labs — Argonne and Fermilab — that serve as engines for basic science research in quantum computing, high-energy physics, and energy systems.
Madasamy sees quantum as undergoing a familiar transition — from physics to engineering — similar to how semiconductors matured into a commercial industry in the 1960s.
“If you want to unearth what will drive the next 50 years of technology, we think it is going to be the kind of research that will emerge from the scientific hubs in Chicago,” he said.
First Investments Reflect Breadth of Vision
So far, Harper Court Ventures has made four investments: Flow Medical, which is developing a next-gen catheter for treating pulmonary embolisms; SimCare AI, a clinical skills training platform using synthetic patient conversations; and Beacon, which offers real-time pathogen elimination systems for air and surfaces. OrisDX is developing a saliva-based multiomic platform for early oral cancer detection
Each startup has ties to UChicago’s medical, engineering, or business communities. The fund’s broad mandate includes bets in frontier areas like quantum sensing, advanced AI models, and novel battery chemistries. These are domains where deep academic roots can give startups a lasting edge.
“The companies we’re backing are often built around patented or hard-to-replicate tech, with domain experts at the helm,” said Madasamy. “That’s how you build category-defining companies.”
A New Model for Translating Research
MFV’s strategy represents a shift from the traditional academic commercialization model of patenting and licensing to an emphasis on company creation. By embedding directly with researchers and sharing profits with the university, the fund aligns incentives in a way that encourages venture building.
“The model is more hands-on than tech transfer,” Madasamy said. “We’re not waiting for researchers to knock on our door – we’re sitting next to them, figuring out how to turn science into startups.”
That proximity is critical, he argues, because many researchers underestimate the commercial potential of their work.
Looking Ahead: From Signal to Ecosystem
Over the next three years, MFV plans to invest in nearly 40 companies. The five-year goal is to see several of those companies break out — attracting major follow-on funding and growing into recognized players. The ten-year goal is bolder: for Chicago to become a globally acknowledged node in the deep tech startup map.
“In ten years, I want people to look at the Chicago deep tech ecosystem and say, ‘You can’t leave this city off the list,’” said Madasamy.
Limitations remain. Chicago still lacks the density of venture firms found on the coasts. And it will take time for the first wave of companies to scale to IPOs or large exits. But the Harper Court Ventures funding is designed to light the spark.
The bet is that once the capital — and belief — starts to flow, the rest will follow.
