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Nirav Desai

  • Affiliate Assistant Professor

Nirav S. Desai is an entrepreneur, investor, and strategist who integrates technologies to enable the next wave of computing. Over the course of his career, Mr. Desai has consulted with clients in the technology, health, manufacturing/logistics, and government sectors – helping a major consulting firm build a 100+ person immersive technology (virtual reality, augmented reality, etc.) practice. He brings this experience to Moonbeam as Co-Founder and Senior Partner. Moonbeam is a startup focused on rapid prototyping of solutions that address barriers to spatial computing and machine intelligence technology adoption. Additionally, he advises startups and consults with corporate clients working with innovation labs, government research centers, universities, and incubators and accelerators, to identify and embrace edge technologies.

He keeps on the cutting edge of enterprise technology through contributions to civil society. He is the Seattle Chapter President for the Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality Association, a global member community of virtual reality and augmented reality professionals and enterprises with chapters in major cities across the globe. He mentors startups through TechStars Seattle, the TechStars/Amazon Alexa startup accelerators, and the University of Washington’s CoMotion Labs. He serves as an Innovation Co-Chair for the Pacific Northwest Economic Region with a focus on helping states, provinces, and municipalities embrace disruption and position for the future economy.

Mr. Desai maintains connection with academia serving the University of Washington as an Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and as a Civic Council member for the Jackson School of International Studies. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.A. in Mathematics and Philosophy.

Nirav Desai Headshot