Mike Koo

Mike Koo is a Venture Partner at Sippl Investments, LLC, the private investment vehicle of software entrepreneur Roger Sippl (founder of Informix). Koo joined the firm around 2009 and anchors its medical-technology and life-sciences investing, a focus that grew out of the pairing of Roger Sippl's pre-med education with Koo's biotech business-development background. Sippl Investments describes itself as having done "angel"-level investing for roughly 25 years, providing capital and management support to early-stage and emerging software and medical companies, primarily in Silicon Valley.

Koo brought nearly two decades of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry experience to the firm. Before joining Sippl, he held a corporate-development role at SAIC, the Fortune 500 scientific and technology company based in San Diego. Earlier he was Associate Director of Licensing and Acquisitions at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, which develops treatments for neurological and psychological disease, and Director of Business Development at PPD Discovery, where he led western-U.S. sales. He also held business-development and marketing positions at Entelos and Applied Biosystems, and earlier research roles at Nycomed Amersham (Salutar) and Chevron Corporation, where he co-authored U.S. patents. He served eight years in the United States Marine Corps (Infantry) earlier in his career.

Koo earned a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from UC Davis and an MBA from San Jose State University. His combination of bench-science training, pharma/biotech licensing experience, and business development is the practical lens he brings to the firm's medtech and life-science deals.

Note: aggregator sources (TheOrg, ContactOut) indicate Koo later transitioned into public service as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State, suggesting his day-to-day involvement in active angel investing may have wound down; this could not be confirmed from a primary source and should be verified before outreach.

• Invests at the angel / seed / early stage in emerging companies, alongside management support rather than passive capital.
• Two core sectors: (1) medical technology / life sciences — Koo's domain — and (2) enterprise-grade software and information technology, Roger Sippl's domain.
• Firm's stated approach is long-horizon "angel"-level investing (~25 years of activity), concentrated in Silicon Valley with selective international/Asia partnerships.
• Koo's personal edge is biotech and pharma business development, licensing, and acquisitions — he is positioned to evaluate medtech science and commercialization/partnering paths, not just the cap table.