Yale Ventures Annual Report 2024
FY 2024: July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024
Letter from the Managing Director
I am excited to share the Yale Ventures Annual Report for FY 2024, highlighting the pioneering spirit and the transformative impact that Yale innovation can have on the world. We’ve made significant strides in scaling the resources, programs, and events that support, connect, and empower Yale’s innovation community, enabling breakthroughs that address the world's greatest challenges. Together, we engage our stakeholders—entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, and public and private partners—in a vibrant ecosystem fostering entrepreneurship and translating groundbreaking findings into practical action. At Yale Ventures, we are grateful to support our faculty, students, and community in our collective work to create a better world.
Josh Geballe
Managing Director, Yale Ventures
Senior Associate Provost for Entrepreneurship, Yale University
AT A GLANCE
Entrepreneurial Activity
14
Yale faculty-led spinouts
98
Deals, new licenses
$5.75M
Translational funding awarded
Invention & Patent Activity
275
Invention disclosures
165
Provisional applications
306
Patents issued,
2,247 Yale patents overall
Innovation Ecosystem
6,700
Event registrants across 45+ Yale Ventures events
45
Yale Ventures hosted events
9.3
NPS score for the 2024 Yale Innovation Summit
INNOVATION STORIES
SPINOUTS & STARTUPS
Yale SOM Startup Stories: Healthee Helps Employees Navigate Their Healthcare Benefits
Protein Evolution: This Startup's AI Designs Enzymes That Can Eat Plastic Waste
Yale Spinout, Freedom Biosciences Announces FDA Approval of IND Application to Treat Depression
Evident Battery: Bringing Transparency to the Used EV Market
Spring Health boosts valuation to $3.3 billion with $100 million Series E
With new CEO, $26.5M capital raise, New Haven startup in race for quantum computing supremacy
HiLabs, Founded by Amit Garg ’14 and Neel Butala ’14 Closes $39 Million Series B
School of Public Health alum’s startup Pills2Me relaunches in New Haven
Guideli, founded by Harvard and Yale MBA students, plans to help immigrants settle down in their new countries
Yale Spinout, Couragene, is Revolutionizing In Vivo Gene Editing to Tackle Neurological Diseases
AWARDS & PROFILES
Akiko Iwasaki, PhD Named to Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2024
Yale Researchers Recognized with Yale Faculty Innovation Awards
Student Entrepreneurs from Yale Win Prestigious $1 Million 2023 Hult Prize
Devoret, Schoelkopf awarded Comstock Prize in Physics for quantum advances
Elimelech awarded the Connecticut Medal of Technology for pioneering work
Yale Innovators Recognized on Forbes 30 Under 30 Healthcare List
Yale team awarded $5 million from Department of Energy to combat climate change
Roger Lee ’94: The real dawn of e-commerce
Faculty Innovator Spotlight: Dr. Maxwell Laurans
Oxylus Energy and ThreadMap, 2024 semi-finalists for the MIT Climate Energy Prize
ECOSYSTEM
Governor Lamont Announces Creation of the Innovation Clusters Program at Yale Innovation Summit
Yale, UConn propose a ‘quantum corridor’ for new tech, jobs in Connecticut
BioMed X Launches New US Institute in New Haven, CT
A CT city is booming with massive redevelopment, apartments, biotech.
Clean Tech in the city: a look at ClimateHaven’s first half-year
Innovation Training & Startups
ACCELERATOR FUND
The Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale
Accelerating the translation of early-stage life science research into impactful products and life saving solutions.
The Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale is a $65 million fund committed to cultivating and transforming Yale's pioneering life sciences research into cutting-edge, life-saving solutions. In 2023, The Blavatnik Family Foundation made an additional $40 million donation to increase the number of research awards available to Yale scientists, support a wider range of biomedical innovations. The team worked expanded their reach to work with all applicants in addition to awardees, with 100% of new applicants receiving feedback from the Yale Ventures team and external industry experts to increase their chance of commercial success. We also increased the opportunities for faculty by adopting new mid-cycle “accelerator awards.” Two of the six FY 23 awards were converted into full FY 24 development awards and all six have now successfully delivered their milestones.
The clinical readiness of our portfolio made a notable shift towards the clinic with 4 active projects meeting with the FDA as they prepare for IND submissions.
HIGHLIGHTS: FY 2024
23
Projects
$3.95M
Awarded
LIFETIME: 2017 - 2024
81
Projects
28
Ventures Launched
5
IND Accepted
5
Clinical trials initiated
The Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale awards $3.1M to support platform technologies, gene therapies, and innovations in inflammatory diseases and cancer
Translating Ideas to Impact: The Blavatnik Fund for Innovation Brings Groundbreaking Research from Yale to the World
Eight Pioneering Innovations Honored with Blavatnik Accelerator Awards at the 2024 Yale Innovation Summit
Yale’s Life Science Community Celebrates Innovation at the 2023 Yale Life Science Pitchfest; 4 Yale Faculty Awardees Recognized
The Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale is a $65 million fund overseen by Yale Ventures, committed to cultivating and transforming Yale's pioneering research into cutting-edge, life-saving solutions within the realm of life sciences. The fund is made possible by a generous grant from the Blavatnik Family Foundation in support of the commercialization of Yale faculty applied research and technology in the life sciences. The Fund’s integrated approach combines business expertise, intensive guidance, and essential funding to support innovative, Yale investigator-initiated translational research. The goal of completed projects is to positively impact human health through startup advancement, partnerships with industry, major industry-sponsored research agreements, or external non-dilutive funding.
ACCELERATOR FUND
The Roberts Innovation Fund
Accelerating the engine of innovation at the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science.
New methods to purify water, advance quantum computing, democratize artificial intelligence, and deliver life-saving drugs are just some of the ten projects funded by the 2024 Roberts Innovation Fund Awards. Of this year’s awardees, 5 companies have formed, 4 licenses have been issued, and over $4M has been raised from outside investors. This year’s Roberts Fund awardees were also featured at the 2024 Yale Innovation Summit, giving them exposure to a broader audience of investors, innovators, and potential partners.
In 2024, the Roberts Innovation Fund was expanded to ensure more Yale faculty innovators across multiple domain areas have the opportunity for support. Yale Engineering expanded the amount of available capital to a total of $1M each year (up from $500k in 2023). In addition to grant funding, the award includes mentorship, and strategic support for the Yale Engineering faculty awardees to assist in the commercialization of breakthrough inventions. This year the Roberts Fund secured standard computing benefits, connecting awardees with cloud-based services from Microsoft Azure credits, OpenAI, AWS and Google.
HIGHLIGHTS: FY 2024
10
Projects
$1M
Awarded
LIFETIME: 2017 - 2024
20
Projects
$1.5M
Awarded
The Roberts Innovation Fund provides grant funding, mentoring, and strategic support for Yale faculty-led projects from the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Sciences to assist in the commercialization of breakthrough inventions that solve real-world problems. Faculty applicants also receive valuable feedback from an experienced team of advisors, including the Fund’s director, and an external advisory board with extensive experience in building and scaling technology ventures. Overseen by Yale Ventures and the Office of the Dean of the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science, the Fund focuses on breakthrough technologies developed by Yale Engineering faculty. The Roberts Innovation Fund is supported from a generous gift from Yale alumnus Will Roberts ’90.
ACCELERATOR FUND
The Colton Center for Autoimmunity at Yale
Advancing innovative and translational research in autoimmune and allergic diseases.
With a mission to support translational research in autoimmune and allergic diseases, Colton Center for Autoimmunity at Yale supports Yale investigators’ innovative research toward developing therapeutics, diagnostics and platform technologies, and to gain deeper insights into the disease mechanisms of complex immunological disorders.
In 2024, the Yale Colton Center provided funding for 11 Yale faculty-led projects, including projects focusing on ANCA-associated vasculitis, antiphospholipid syndrome, asthma and allergies, age-related macular degeneration, chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps, cystic fibrosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and lupus nephritis. In addition to research funding, the Yale Colton Center provides strategic support with the goal of ushering the technology to commercialization stage.
Launched in 2023, Plythera Inc. became the first Yale spinout jointly supported by both Colton and Blavatnik accelerator funds.
HIGHLIGHTS: FY 2024
11
Projects
$1.15M
Awarded
LIFETIME
40
Projects
$4.2M
Awarded
11 Yale Projects Receive Awards from the Colton Center for Autoimmunity in 2024
Philanthropists Judith and Stewart Colton on their personal commitment to curing autoimmune disease
2024 Yale Innovation Summit Sets Attendance Record, Showcases Global Leaders and Launches State Innovation Clusters Program
The Colton Center for Autoimmunity at Yale provides research funding and strategic support to advance faculty members’ translational research in autoimmune and allergic diseases. Founded in 2019 with a generous gift from Judith and Stewart Colton, the Yale Colton Center is committed to advancing innovative translational research toward developing therapeutics, diagnostics and platform technologies, and to gain deeper insights into the disease mechanisms of complex immunological disorders. The Yale Colton Center fosters cross-disciplinary, investigator-initiated translational research to bridge the gaps between basic research and product development.
The Yale Colton Center is a part of a broader Colton Consortium joining three other named centers at the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, and Tel Aviv University, forming an international coalition committed to advancing autoimmunity research. The awards available through the Yale Colton Center reflect consortium’s dedication to promoting groundbreaking research and combating autoimmune and allergic diseases on a global scale.
INNOVATION CENTER
The Center for Biomedical Innovation and Technology (CBIT)
Catalyzing innovators across Yale’s campus to make novel healthcare solutions in data science, diagnostics, and devices a reality.
Since 2014, The Yale Center for Biomedical Innovation and Technology (CBIT) has worked collaboratively with students and faculty across Yale to support the acceleration of discoveries in biomedical and healthcare technology including digital health, healthcare data, diagnostics, and medical devices. In 2024, Yale CBIT convened two of Yale’s biggest healthcare innovation events, Clinical Pitch Night and the Yale Healthcare Hackathon, and launched the Rothberg Build Fund for student innovators.
NEWS & HIGHLIGHTS
CBIT Events
The annual Healthcare Hackathon focused on “Preventative Medicine” and drew over 200 attendees from 19 peer institutions including Yale who formed 15 interdisciplinary teams and competed for $10,000 in prizes. The campus-wide Clinical Pitch Night event welcomed clinical innovators representing a wide range of healthcare innovations.
Rothberg Student Funding & Catalyzer Prize
StartUp Yale student teams compete for funding prizes to catapult their innovations to the next level. The Rothberg Catalyzer Prize received a record-breaking number of applicants interested in competing for the $15,000 healthcare prize. The newly launched Rothberg Build Fund supports students working at the earliest stages of building a prototype/beta in the healthcare space.
Yale New Haven Partnership
Since 2016, CBIT has been collaborating with YNHHS on innovation efforts and establishing the Yale New Haven Health Innovation Awards. This year, five projects were selected to receive an award of $100,000 following a rigorous selection process.
The Yale University Center for Biomedical Innovation and Technology (CBIT) is an interdisciplinary initiative to convene and guide Yale innovators to solve the greatest challenges in healthcare. The center catalyzes biomedical and healthcare technology development by educating the next generation of innovators, mentoring all comers on their journey, and surrounding entrepreneurs with the necessary resources.
Launched in 2014, Yale CBIT provides support to faculty and students creating novel digital health solutions, medical device technologies, and diagnosticsacross Yale University. CBIT has developed partnerships with the Yale School of Medicine, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, School of Management, School of Public Health, Tsai CITY, Yale Ventures, and Yale New Haven Health. In addition to supporting innovation teams working in those spaces, CBIT has established new courses, and sponsored events to contribute to strengthening the Yale innovation community including CBIT’s signature event, the Yale Healthcare Hackathon.
STUDENT INNOVATION
The Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale
Inspiring students from diverse backgrounds and disciplines to seek innovative ways to solve real-world problems.
$423,900
Total funding awarded
1212
Office Hours hosted
110
Events & Workshops
207
Student projects supported
The 2023-2024 academic year was another vibrant and busy time for Tsai CITY. In the seventh year since the center launched, we began to move out of startup mode and into a more steady-state existence. We continued with a breadth of initiatives across programming, mentoring, funding and community and consistent with our five innovation pathways.
At Tsai CITY, we encourage students to explore their passions, collaborate across disciplines, and engage in innovative problem-solving to advance new ideas.
Clare Leinweber, Executive Director, Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale
The mission of Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale (Tsai CITY) is to inspire students from diverse backgrounds and disciplines to seek innovative ways to solve real-world problems. Launched in 2017, Tsai CITY serves students from across Yale’s campus through programs, funding, and mentoring. We’re building a new kind of innovation center, one rooted in inclusivity: here, students from all backgrounds tackle issues like climate change and civic engagement, develop creative projects from documentary films to digital platforms, and launch high-growth ventures and movements.
Across all of our offerings, we strive to foster four core outcomes for Yale and its students:
- interdisciplinary collaboration
- inclusivity across all dimensions of diversity
- skills and practices of effective action
- resilience
FACULTY PROGRAMS
Venture Lab
An innovation platform for faculty entrepreneurs.
amplifyHERscience
Supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion in science and entrepreneurial pursuits.
41
Venture Lab Workshops
480
Mentor Hours provided for Yale faculty
48
Innovators supported
6
Events hosted: Elevator Pitch Intensives, Speed Networking, Pitch Showcase
Venture Lab is an innovation platform designed to support Yale faculty entrepreneurs across all domains and stages of their venture development. Supported by Yale Ventures EIRs, or executives and entrepreneurs in residence, the program supports faculty venture development with executive mentorship, resources, and business analysis.
In 2024 we doubled the capacity of our flagship program, Venture Lab Workshops, hosting 41 workshops (up from 20 in FY 23) and connected 40 faculty with 84 Yale Ventures EIRs and 10 Venture Lab student associates. We added new EIRs with expertise in AI, data science, and quantum. This year our EIRs spent over 480 hours working with Yale faculty offering targeted feedback to achieve their next venture milestone.
amplifyHERscience hosted Yale inaugural Health of Women Summit, bringing together leaders and experts from various fields interested in supporting the translation of early-stage research. The event convened Deans from the Yale School of Medicine, Yale School of Public Health, and Yale School of Engineering, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration across campus.
Keynotes and featured speakers included Stephanie Kramer, Chief Human Resources Officer of L'Oréal USA, Pam Belluck, Health & Science writer for the New York Times, and Marcel van Duin, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Organon. Their insights highlighted the critical importance of advancing research that uniquely impacts women’s health.
The summit spotlighted ten Yale researchers who are conducting promising work in areas disproportionately affecting women, such as oncology, autoimmune disease, cardiovascular health, mental health, and reproductive health. The event's primary goal was to connect these researchers with industry experts who can help propel their projects forward, shedding light on the groundbreaking work being done at Yale.
For Yale faculty entrepreneurs who are looking to translate their research from lab to impact, Venture Lab is an innovation platform that supports faculty with education and training, executive mentorship, business analysis, entrepreneurship resources, and funding strategies.
Venture Lab’s flagship program is “Venture Lab Workshops,” customized workshops designed to support faculty innovation projects with expert mentorship from Yale Ventures EIRs. These executives, investors and entrepreneurs acts as coaches and mentors for faculty projects across stages and sectors. Rigorous research support is provided from Yale student analysts.
To advance parity in Yale entrepreneurs to reflect the diversity of Yale faculty…one innovator at a time. AmplifyHERscience, initiated in 2020, is a program overseen by Yale Ventures dedicated to supporting and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion for Yale scientists with entrepreneurial pursuits.
IP & Licensing
275
Disclosures
165
Provisional applications
462
Non-provisional applications
306
Patents issued FY 24
2,233
Total Yale patents
14
Faculty spinouts
TECH SPOTLIGHTS
Yale Ventures IP & Licensing Services helps translate Yale University innovations into products and services that benefit society. Our team has expertise in business development, marketing, intellectual property protection, contract negotiation, financing, and venture formation. We proactively facilitate a range of connections between Yale and the private sector to further develop and commercialize Yale innovations, and are dedicated to serving the Yale community for a variety of successful outcomes:
- Executing a technology license
- Forging a research and development collaboration
- Supporting the formation of a new venture
- Evaluating promising technologies disclosed by faculty, staff, and students.
- Protecting technology with patent, trademark, or copyright filings.
- Marketing technologies to industry, investors, and entrepreneurs to find commercial partners interested in developing and commercializing the technology.
- Negotiating confidentiality, option, research, and license agreements with interested parties.
- Nurturing relationships with our commercial partners.
- Advising faculty, staff, and student innovators at every step along the path to commercialization.
Corporate Strategy & Engagement
The Corporate Strategy & Engagement Office (CSEO) primary mandate is to develop deep partnerships with companies that bring increased resources to campus in support of Yale’s scientific and educational missions. Following a year of growth in corporate research funding, CSEO spent FY 24 supporting strengthening industry relationships with key alliance partners, building a pipeline of projects and prospects, and exploring new models for growth.
To build on existing industry alliances and strategic partnerships, CSEO was an active convener and facilitator by organizing science days, symposiums, and other opportunities for Yale faculty and industry to engage with each other and identify areas of collaboration.
375
Industrial scientists engaged via science days and site visits
200
Yale faculty engaged
HIGHLIGHTS
- Expansion of our strategic partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim
- Expansion of our research alliance with Astra Zeneca
- Collaboration on the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture Corporate Roundtable and (new) MRV (Measurement Reporting and Verification) Initiative
- Strategic Partnership with Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York (CZ Biohub NY) bringing together Columbia University, The Rockefeller University, and Yale University to create new technologies to characterize and bioengineer immune cells.
- CSEO contributed to the successful submission of a Triple Helix (Government, Academic, Industry) Grant Proposal on Quantum Technologies with UCONN. As part of the leadership team for Quantum CT, CSEO garnered the support and engagement of companies like Boehringer Ingelheim, Raytheon, Novartis, Pfizer and NVIDIA on seed projects with faculty from both UCONN and Yale.
OUR PARTNERS
Innovation Community
Yale Ventures takes the lead on building and nurturing a thriving ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship at Yale. This year we expanded our events and increased our outreach, engaging with greater numbers of Yale and Connecticut innovators. We welcomed over 6,500 people—innovators, investors, and industry partners, to engage with the Yale innovation community through a range of events and programming.
We continued to host Yale’s signature innovation events including the Faculty Innovation Awards, Yale Life Science Pitchfest, and the Yale Innovation Summit. Additionally, we launched new events such as the Yale Founder Matchmaking event and Clinical Pitchfest welcoming and connecting students and faculty across Yale’s campus.
ALL EVENTS
45
Innovation Events (+56% YoY)
6,700
Event registrants
OUR TEAM
58
Yale Ventures Staff
78
Student fellows & associates
159
EIRs
INNOVATION SUMMIT
9.3
Event NPS
2,200
Summit attendees
$350k
Awarded
FEATURED EVENT
Yale Innovation Summit
Over 2,400 founders, investors, and industry partners attended our biggest ever Yale Innovation Summit, awarding $350,000 to innovators, and launching new programming including an Investor Assembly and a new track of programming to highlight the civic innovation in our ecosystem. Governor Ned Lamont chose the Yale Innovation Summit’s opening ceremony to announce the creation of the Innovation Clusters Program to support growth in cutting-edge industries.
SUMMIT NEWS
2024 Yale Innovation Summit Sets Attendance Record, Showcases Global Leaders and Launches State Innovation Clusters Program
Dr. Chelsea Clinton shares insights on successful social entrepreneurship at Yale Innovation Summit
Yale Innovation Summit Announces Keynote Speakers: Chelsea Clinton, Emmett Shear ’05, and Tom Steyer ’79
Governor Lamont Announces Creation of the Innovation Clusters Program at Yale Innovation Summit
With deepest thanks to the volunteer mentors, investors, industry partners, service providers and other collaborators who come together to support the Yale innovation community, and to our faculty and students who inspire us every day.