Milad Alucozai

Head of Life Sciences, BoxOne Ventures

Dr. Milad Alucozai is an Afghan-American neuroscientist, entrepreneur, biotech executive, and global investor with almost two decades of experience in deep tech, primarily focused on life sciences. He is at the forefront of bioengineering and computational advancements, integrating machine learning and artificial intelligence into the realms of biology and medicine. With a strong commitment to commercializing transformative technologies and fostering startup ecosystems worldwide, he is a thought leader and mentor for entrepreneurs through organizations like Creative Destruction Lab and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. In 2024, Milad Alucozai was appointed a Strategic Expert in Residence (XIR) at Digitalis Commons. The Digitalis Commons XIR network provides commercialization support for early-stage health technologies, including for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). With a budget of $2.5 billion in federal funding, ARPA-H is a research funding agency that supports transformative biomedical and health breakthroughs – ranging from the molecular to the societal – to provide health solutions for all.

Milad is the head of Bio and Deep Tech at BoxOne Ventures, where he spearheads the firm’s investments in early-stage companies with breakthrough scientific ideas. With nearly 80 early-stage investments, they are recognized as one of North America’s most active venture firms. He was formerly a Venture Partner at Entrepreneur First, a global fund that has built over 500 companies from scratch with an enterprise value of $10bn. He supports founders with strategy, scaling, business development, securing growth capital, and leadership training, often being their first investor and guiding them from startup inception to IPOs or acquisitions.

Milad’s career trajectory began in translational neuroscience and multiphysics laboratories before transitioning into pivotal roles within biotech startups. Notably, he served as the Chief Business Officer at Mekonos, a San Francisco-based company pioneering a proprietary cell-engineering platform essential for the advancement of cell and gene therapies. During his time at Accenture, Milad led multidisciplinary teams of data scientists, designers, and engineers, contributing significantly to the development of cutting-edge artificial intelligence platforms tailored for global pharmaceutical companies and hospital networks.

Milad holds the position of Senior Fellow in Healthcare Engineering at the Regenstrief Center. In 2020, he served as an External Advisor to AstraZeneca. He was recognized as a National Science Foundation Scholar and Macklin Fellow at Johns Hopkins Medicine. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in Neuroscience from Purdue University’s Honors Program. As a George J. Mitchell Scholar, he completed his master’s in Immunology and earned his doctorate from the Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health.