Mahni Ghorashi

Mahni Ghorashi is an entrepreneur and founder. He later served as Chief Strategy Officer for the state of Tennessee's economic development program for innovation, startups and venture capital.

Early life and education Mahni Ghorashi was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He received BS degrees from MIT in 2005, attended the PhD program in English at Yale, and received an MBA from Vanderbilt University. He's an amateur classical pianist.

Early career Ghorashi started his career as an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, where he helped grow a number of ventures to exit in Silicon Valley, including Bina (acquired Roche) and LiteScape (acquired RSA). In 2014, Ghorashi co-founded Clear Labs, a private genomics testing company headquartered in San Carlos, California, United States. It conducts high-throughput DNA sequencing tests to determine if food samples contain the genetic materials of specific pathogens. It can also verify a food's ingredients, its GMO status, or whether it has been contaminated by human or animal DNA.

Clear Labs was founded by Ghorashi and Sasan Amini, both of whom left their jobs at genomics companies to start Clear Labs. They acquired $6.5 million in series A financing in 2015. In 2017, the company closed a $16 million Series B funding round and followed by another $21 million round in October 2018. The company raised a follow-on round of $18M on May 14, 2020, and $60M Series C for a total of $123.5M. In 2025 the company raised an additional $30M Series D round .The company was listed as one of Forbe's 25 most innovative Ag-tech startups.

Public Policy & Investment Mahni served as Chief Strategy Officer at Launch Tennessee, the state of Tennessee's early-stage venture economic growth engine. Launch Tennessee stimulates the statewide economy by facilitating capital formation, market building and providing the needed resources to ensure sustainable growth for entrepreneurs and investors. As Chief Strategy Officer, Ghorashi oversaw state-wide venture capital and portfolio investments, state-wide entrepreneurial incubators, university and government-lab tech-transfer and licensing programs, university engagement, private sector and policy outreach.