CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Flagship Ventures,
a leading venture capital and venture creation firm focused on
healthcare and sustainability, announced the start of its fifth
VentureLabs™ Entrepreneurial Fellowship Program, a unique
opportunity for top graduate students to practice entrepreneuring
in the pursuit of world changing venture opportunities.
Building on the success of last year's program, eight talented
fellows were selected to work hand-in-hand with the VentureLabs
team this summer to explore disruptive opportunities in the
therapeutics, health technologies, sustainability and consumer
spaces. "The team at VentureLabs has been perfecting and applying
the discipline of entrepreneuring to the venture creation process
for over a decade," said Noubar
Afeyan, Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of
Flagship Ventures. "Our Fellowship Program serves not only to scale
our venture creation efforts, but also as a means to share our
method of realizing entrepreneurial innovation, and to cultivate
relationships with really talented and driven individuals."
The eight fellows include engineers and scientists pursuing
PhDs, MBAs and Master's degrees with entrepreneurial and technical
experience, ideal for solving the complex scientific and business
problems that are explored as part of the summer fellowship.
Fellows will participate in the VentureLabs process of parallel
entrepreneurship and venture creation. "Our mission with the
Fellowship Program is to bring together exceptional innovators from
varied backgrounds to collaborate with our team in nucleating great
companies, providing the fellows with a stimulating and challenging
experience unlike any other," said Harry
Wilcox, Chief Operating Officer and General Partner of
Flagship Ventures.
Hundreds of applicants applied to the Fellowship Program from
universities around the world. These fellows were carefully
selected from top graduate programs and represent diverse technical
and business backgrounds, skills and interests.
About Flagship Ventures
Realizing entrepreneurial innovation is the mission of Flagship
Ventures. The firm operates through two synergistic units:
VentureLabs™ which invents and launches transformative companies,
and Venture Capital, which finances and develops innovative,
early-stage companies. Founded in 2000, and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Flagship Ventures
manages over $900 million in capital.
The Flagship team is active in three principal business sectors:
therapeutics, health technologies and sustainability/clean
technology. Past successful Flagship portfolio companies
include: Accuri Cytometers (acquired by Becton, Dickinson and
Company), Adnexus (acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb), Hypnion
(acquired by Eli Lilly), AVEO (NASDAQ: AVEO), BG Medicine (NASDAQ:
BGMD), Tetraphase (NASDAQ: TTPH), Receptos (NASDAQ: RCPT) and
Morphotek (acquired by Eisai). Additional notable portfolio
companies include: AeroDesigns, Affinnova, Agios, BIND
Therapeutics, Joule Unlimited, Quanterix, and Moderna
Therapeutics. For more information, please visit
www.flagshipventures.com.
Contact:
For Flagship Ventures: Rachel Brenner
Ruder Finn
212.715.1623
flagship@ruderfinn.com
SOURCE Flagship Ventures