Expansion of the Yale Startup License Program to Support Yale Innovators
Yale Ventures has expanded the Yale Startup Licenses for use by members of the university community developing new ventures based on Yale intellectual property. This includes the release of a new license designed specifically to support early-stage and software-enabled spinouts. The Yale Startup Licenses are designed to help innovators streamline and accelerate the launch of Yale technologies into the world where they can have the greatest impact.
At Yale Ventures, we are seeing growing interest from early-stage faculty-led startups, especially software-enabled technologies in the areas of artificial intelligence, machine learning, technology infrastructure, cybersecurity, blockchain, climate technologies and more. The recent updates to expand the Yale Startup License program are designed to reduce friction in the process to move breakthrough research from the lab and out into the world where it can be scaled for positive impact.
—Josh Geballe
Managing Director, Yale Ventures and Senior Associate Provost for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Yale University
The university has worked closely with a team of faculty, startup attorneys, experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and other stakeholders to update the Yale Startup Licenses so that their deal structures include more competitive financial terms. Especially notable is that the new structure features a lowered grant of equity to Yale, which has been benchmarked against those from peer institutions.
These updates are part of an overall effort by Yale Ventures to reduce barriers for moving Yale technologies out of the university and onto their path to commercialization. The updated licenses follow the recent Yale announcement that the university will expand IP license income-sharing practices, distributing 100% of net income generated from new technologies to the Yale researchers and academic units responsible for the inventions.